Chapter 5

It is one gloomy night when Mikaella Lee wakes up not because of the loud metal sound from her neighbor’s stereo but because of the pain in her chest. The pain is unbearable that causes her breath to hamper. Before her sanity faints, she remembers herself crying for help. When she wakes up, she is already in a ventilated room that seems unfamiliar. The realization comes rushing that urges her to hurry out. Her ruthless neighbor has brought her to his cottage.

“What the hell have you done to me?” Mikaella Lee angrily confronts the man outside as he prepares himself for a morning jog at the seashore.

“Excuse me, miss, I heard you ask for help that’s why I did a simple act of kindness, was it bad?”

“It is, because your hands are the very last hands on earth that I could imagine touching me. Now, what have you done to me last night?” she screams in anger.

“Nothing. I just changed your dress because you were soaked last night,” he continues as he holds up his right shoulder, his voice is full of sarcasm as he smiles.

Mikaella Lee blushes tremendously the moment she looks at herself. The set of pajamas she wears is different to what she remembers she has worn before she slept last night. It is her most embarrassing moment, to think that it happens in front of the ferocious moron she hates most. The first thing that comes into her mind is to go away in front of this beast so she turns back and run towards her cottage.

Isla Carillo oozes the simplicity and abundance of a life every single soul longs for. Since the opening of Mikay’s Nest, people start to set foot at the islet. One of them is Toni Macabenta, a local fisherman who supplies Ellah’s kitchen with fresh catches like giant blue fin, shrimp, crab, and seashells, which Elisa Mortel cooks for the resort’s restaurant. Ellah hired Elisa before the opening of the resort and she has been a blessing since she makes things simpler for her and the resort. Early in the morning Elisa arrives from the mainland with the basic commodities Ellah and the resort need. In the afternoon after the sun sets, Elisa goes back to the mainland with the list of needed items on the next day, and of course to be with her family. Ellah had asked her to stay in Isla Carillo, but her one-year old child cannot be left alone with her drunkard husband, Donato. Whenever Ellah and Elisa talk about family life, and she tells horrible moments with Donato, Mikaella Lee’s fear of building a family accumulates. Elisa’s testimonies become a shadow of a fearful future life for Ellah.

The resort’s cottages are not designed for overnight. As a result, visitors usually leave at 6 o’clock in the afternoon in Alex Menor’s motor boat. Ellah talked with him for a commissioned service to take and fetch patrons to Isla Carillo.

In the evening, when everybody is gone, Mikaella Lee sits at the veranda of her cottage. Looking at the gleaming moonlight, she thinks of the way things unfold. For the duration of her stay, she has telephoned Carina Wang only twice due to poor connectivity. She has heard the town mayor works with Rotelco, a local telephone company, to construct a signal booster in the mainland. If that happens, she will lay a proposal to include Isla Carillo in the project since the islet now begins to be a tourist spot. The thought of generating another income for local residents paints smile on Mikaella Lee’s sun kissed face. Her months of stay in the islet resulted to physical changes. Her glossy white complexion turned sandy and freckles start to appear on her cheeks. Strands of golden brown hair begins to dominate the once thin glossy threads. Indeed, Mikaella Lee looks like a real island girl.

Mark arrives at the end of the semester. Ellah is currently looking at the list of reservation at the front desk when masculine hands cover her eyes, and a familiar voice from the back almost touches her ear. His warm breath brings voltage of electricity that crawls from her ears down to her spine and causes the butterflies on her stomach to rejoice. An avalanche of mixed emotions lulls her to the seventh heaven. This moment is not new to Mikaella Lee. She and Vince had intimate moments before, but the intensity and sensation of then and now are of different levels, something confusing that she cannot understand even in her waking dreams. Ellah gathers her strength to remove the hands blocking her eyes, and the moment she turns to face him, Mark’s lips land on hers. The drastic kiss lasts for few seconds only, but it leaves Mikaella Lee in desperate awe. She is ashamed of herself because deep inside, she wants more.

She is thinking of a repeat performance when Mark leads her out of the counter and handed her few of the goodies he brought from the city. A bar of Cadbury lights her eyes and in turn gives him a hug.

Lunch becomes special for Ellah and Mark who eat under the coconut shade. Only two guests arrive this morning and the resort is not busy on that day.

“How’s school?” Ellah asks while having her last bite.

“How’s my brother?” he rather answers, looking straight into her eyes.

“He’s having a good time,” she literally answers while grinning. Thinking of Michael makes her gag. The man is actually giving her a hard time but she has no intention of telling his mischiefs to anybody. What they have is a silent battle that only the two of them are involved. Whoever wins in the end is yet to find out.

Mark’s first semester is fine. His scholarship for the second semester is maintained, and hopes to be included in the dean’s list once again. Aiming for a Mechanical Engineering degree, it is Mark’s goal to land a stable job and eventually marry Mikaella Lee. He knows that even before he left, and becomes certain the moment his lips touched hers this morning. Mikaella Lee is the woman he wants to wake up with in the future. He wants her to bear his surname, and becomes the mother of his children.

An image of a familiar man walks toward their direction. When Mark sees him, he stands up to meet him.

“What’s up, bro?” Michael taps Mark’s shoulder. Then walks closer to where Ellah is sitting.

“Hi!” he reaches his hand to her but she sees him sarcastically grinning. Ellah mindlessly say, “Hello!” then starts to pack up.

“I’ll go ahead,” she says to the two brothers but focusing eyes only to Mark.

“Sure,” Michael answers waving his hand to Ellah.

“I’ll see you, later,” Mark shouts making sure she hears him.

Mikaella Lee does not look back but only waves her right hand.

She is sitting in the veranda when Mark knocks at 7pm. The light from the solar panel is the only source illuminating the area, for tonight, the moon hides in solitude. Mark does not sit on the rattan chair opposite to hers, he rather pulls it and sits on her side. Mikaella Lee feels the awkward moment that Mark senses, so he immediately puts his right hand on her shoulders and pulls her closer. This time, her ear on his chest, and she could hear its marathon drumming. If the moonlight is not having a retreat, Mark could see how his action causes Ellah’s hot chili face.

She hears him holds his breath. And the moment he kisses her salty hair, Mikaella Lee feels the hot fluid runs from her throat down to her belly. The sensation is once again real. The electricity is becoming intense. And when she turns her head, Mark’s passionate lips touches hers. She opens her lips and let the stars dance in magical moment. The kiss is long and ardent, that when they part, both of them gasp for air.

“How did you learn that?” she teases.

“It is not learned. It is an action that comes naturally,” Mark utters while holding her close again. “Because I love you, Mikaella Lee,” he whispers.

No words come out of her lips. Her heart is full, too full to utter any single word. But a silhouette of a familiar figure is hiding on a distance. He has been there since the beginning. When Mark tells him to close the door and not wait for him, Michael goes out of his cottage to follow his brother. He wants assurance to his convictions.

Their mother left them when Mark was only six years old. Michael was then 16, and together with their father, they tried to live a normal life away from the bitter memories of their mother. He and his younger brother dreamed of building a future, and creating a different life. He even made his brother swear not to fall in love and instill to his young mind that women should not be adored nor loved.

For them, their father, Manuel Amoroso is a good man. An ideal husband, and a good provider for their family but despite of all these, their mother left in favor of another man. Remembering the day their father found out the truth, and seeing their mother left repeatedly stabs Michael to death.

From a 16-year old boy who experienced betrayal, Michael grew up aloof and indifferent. But cupid’s arrow was unavoidable. When Michael was 18 and a university freshman, he met Marisa Martino. Marissa then was 24 years old and teaching logic in the College of Arts and Letters in the university where Michael was enrolled. Michael has mistaken Marissa’s actions, and thought this was love. For a newbie in the city, Michael had a lot of adjustment, and Marissa became his mentor. She was demure on the outside, but wild on the inside. She and Michael became a perfect match. From Marissa, Michael learned the tricks and magic of becoming a man. And before leaving for apprenticeship, Michael already mastered the thrills of Kamasutra.

Michael boarded a cargo ship bound for Japan for his apprenticeship with a promise to Marissa to tie the knots when he finished his contract. Things went well for the first months. Letters were regular and the thought of how obsessive in bed Marissa was, helped Michael survived the fangs of giant waves at sea.

Just a few days after Michael finished his cadetship, a letter of promotion has been sent through the captain citing his stepping up to the level of ordinary seaman. This was a great news so Michael informed Marissa right away. But her reply left a mark that could not be erased on Michael’s heart and mind no matter what. On his absence, Marissa married her high school boyfriend.

Michael again felt the stabs from the past. Not just a single stab, but double, and quite fiercer than before. He tried to escape the pendulum, but the more he made an effort, the harder it appeared. Women whom he loved betrayed him. And since then, Michael found satisfaction in making every woman he met pay for their debts.

He is not selfish in bed. Michael makes sure that he satiates the needs and fulfills the desire of every woman he makes contact with. He knows to handle all kinds of women from naïve to the wild, and dances on their music. Michael is a master in bed, one that leaves a mark on every woman’s fantasy. Most of Michael’s relationships do not last long. When he feels the girl is becoming attached, he finds ways to escape leaving her waiting in promises. For a seafarer like him, there are always women in every port. And Michael enjoys his life.

If only the moon shines with its full light, the lovers at the veranda could see the owner of the shadow. His eyes are razor sharp, his fists are tightly clinched. Then, the shadow slowly vanishes in the dark leaving fangs of disappointment and revenge.