The First Love Of Alipang Havens

Kim was sharing server duties with Maria Ramos--and, just for the peak lunch period, with a Filipino-American boy named Bernardo. When the crowd subsided and Bernardo left, Kim drew Maria out on the subject of Maria's divorce.

There wasn't much to tell. It seemed to Kim that there never was much to tell: a man saw something that looked juicier, and showed his true treacherous colors, leaving his wife with the juice and the colors drained OUT of her life. When Kim began commiserating with Maria, she fell too easily into a line of talk which came too naturally for her, presently saying without thinking about it: "Yeah, men, aren't they all pigs?" She expected the thirtyish divorcee to applaud the brilliant summation, to join her in a girl-power sisterhood moment straight out of The View.

Instead, Maria gave her a stern look, and quietly asked, "Shall I call Mr. Imada to come out here, so you can tell him to his face that he's a pig for helping to feed your family? Or shall I call my son Pablo a pig for mowing lawns and running a paper route to help support us? Or phone up Wilson Kramer to tell him he's a pig for tackling a Rottweiler to save Callie Shore? Or maybe tell Alipang he's a pig for helping you with Trigonometry and expecting nothing in return? Girl, eighteen years old is old enough that you should know how to think _before_ you say something."

Kim was out of her reckoning. Any man saying these things, she could have dismissed as guilty of self-serving male-chauvinist rationalization. But Maria was most utterly and unmistakably female...and was forcing Kim to reconsider her categorical and reflexive belittling of the male sex.

Thinking led to much less flippant words: "Maria...do I talk that way a lot?"

"Not all the time, Kim; but enough to notice, believe me."

Maria allowed Kim to reflect on this for three customers' worth of time. Then the Filipina lady urged Kim to think about whether she had not after all met males who were _other_ than pigs. This, Kim found, made thoughts about Alipang Havens inevitably prominent.

Ever since she had come to perceive the younger boy's true character, she had consciously restrained her male-bashing tendencies when she was with Alipang. But if she could consciously restrain those tendencies, then she was not _unaware_ of having those tendencies. It followed that she could choose to restrain them at other times, too.

But where's the fun in NOT bashing guys? a mutinous part of her soul argued. This part, however, had no rebuttal to offer when the better angels of Miss Tisdale's nature recollected a boy who recited Shakespeare, treated his mother and all of his sisters with love and courtesy, and had called Kim "hotter than burning magnesium."
 
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More guests kept arriving at the Havens house: the Stetzers...the Moores...the Katons...the Conrads, minus the snake...Grant Perry with his guitar, and with his well-behaved dog Scruffy...Pitik and Dolores Imada...Tyrone and Lacey Paulson from the Escrima class, with their parents...exchange students Alina and Mandy...

It was going to be necessary for nearly half of the crowd to eat inside the house; the fenced backyard, large though it was, was filling up.

Jason Katon presented Mrs. Havens with a _framed_ original drawing of his, titled "Filipino Fireball and His Super-Family." He explained that Brendan had told him about the nickname. All the Havens were depicted as anime superheroes: besides Alipang's super-identity, there was the Dynamic Dentist, Homeschool Heroine, Skateboard Sorceress, and Wu-Shu Kids One and Two.

"Did Jason _have_ to draw me so sexy?" Cecilia whispered to her husband when an opportunity came.

"He meant it purely as a compliment," Eric replied; "please accept it in that spirit." Having only very recently needed to seek forgiveness for gratuitously suppressing masculine nature, Cecilia could scarcely argue. "Besides," Eric added, "what you're carrying inside you right now is proof that you ARE sexy to the man you should be sexy to."

"As for that," Cecilia told him, "I gave Melody and Harmony some hints this weekend. They took it well....so I think I want to trust God, now...and _announce_ it to all our friends today."
 
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Mrs. Salisbury, Dan's mother, had formed a favorable impression of Chilena when the girl came to visit Dan during his illness. But only now did she find a good opportunity to speak to Chilena OUT of Dan's hearing, by simply grabbing her opportunity when Dan had to go to the bathroom inside.

"Chilena, dear, understand that I'm perfectly delighted to have my son dating you; but I wonder if you could tell me a little more about what attracted you to Dan to begin with?"

"Okay," Chilena agreed, first passing around beverages to several guests. "It's not too complicated.

"All of my life up to now, there were only two males who were a constant part of my daily life: my father and my brother. And the biggest way that these two were alike for me was that they both loved me with endless kindness and gentleness. I had seen just enough of boys outside my family, including in the Philippines, that I knew I hated it when they were mean and pushy and loud and rough and selfish. So I always hoped I could find a boyfriend who was gentle and kind like Dad and Alipang.

"A homeschooled boy named Dillon acted that way with me at first, but he couldn't keep up the pretense. He turned out to be selfish and conceited. Some other boys tried to look like my Prince Charming, but they were far worse phonies than Dillon. Then when I met Dan that first morning catching the bus, I saw him give up his seat beside me to another girl, one who wasn't even pretty, and keep on talking to me while standing up. So I had the first hint of his kind heart, and there were other cases of his being nice to people.

"I didn't need for Dan to be a streetfighter, because I already had a streetfighter for a brother. I just wanted a boyfriend to be nice to me; and it looked like this one really would be."

"Oh, he is, all right," Mrs. Salisbury beamed, hugging Chilena.


 
Harry Richardson fell into a conversation with Gilberto and Suri; or rather, they came and began chatting with him, as he stood at his propane grill cooking ribs and bratwurst.

"It's amazing," the Honduran girl told the African-American church elder. "Once the local paper had printed two of my photos of the Escrima demonstration, they asked me if I'd be interested in doing more photography of local events."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, Suri, you did a good job on Labor Day: _almost_ made Gilberto here look handsome! And I saw your shots of that accident scene in the latest edition: not so cheerful a subject, but you recorded it well."

"It also meant I could pray for the two drivers," she replied softly. "Thank You Jesus, they both recovered."

"Now, _that_ could be a career truly pleasing to God: a combination photo-journalist and intercessor. Speaking of careers--Gilberto, are you going to be following your Dad into the police force?"

Gilberto sighed, like someone who gets asked the same question too frequently. "No, sir. I admire my father for what he does, but I simply have different interests. He's cool with it."

"Gilberto wants to be an architect," Suri put in, leaning closer to her boyfriend.

"That's fine," said Harry. "Just don't build any see-through houses like the one in that Sandra Bullock movie."

"So how's the shoe business?" Gilberto asked.

"Okay; feet haven't gone out of style. Of course, I always lose half my sales help when a school year starts. I'm looking right now for one or two adult employees, who can stick with me in all seasons..."

About this time, Summer Heron was on her way to the cookout.

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~ ~ ~ Nightcrawler_Fan, take notice of the above tie-in line!
 
Grant asked Chilena to bring out her own guitar to the backyard and join him on some songs. Chilena nodded her head to Grant...and _beckoned_ with her head to her brother as she passed him.

The interior of the house was nearly as packed with people by now as the backyard. The Wonder Twins used their superpowers to weave through this living, breathing asteroid field...climbed up the same stairs which they had come down countless times in snuggling stairway fights...noticed that there was even someone using the upstairs bathroom...and finally reached their goal, which was not merely the guitar, but a stolen moment alone together, wanted by both and _known_ by both to be wanted by both without a word uttered.

Nor was a moment wasted now on words which could equally be spoken in the crowd of company. The knowledge that some outsider was only a wall away from them quadrupled their familiar innocent-guilty sensation like the last plunge into the swimming pool. Chilena's bedroom door scarcely had been safely latched before she and Alipang were wound up and bound up in each other's arms, anxiously squeezing each other close, close, close, as if _daring_ the unidentified bathroom guest to burst in and interrupt them.

What did interrupt them, and this just as they were beginning a kiss, was Alipang's cellphone buzzing in his pocket. Both of them refused to take any notice of it until their kiss, not excessively long but very deliberate, had been kissed; then, keeping one arm around Chilena while she kept both her arms around him and pelted his face with smaller kisses, he quietly answered it. An instant after his hello, Chilena could see his eyes widening as he gulped, "Kim?"

Chilena suddenly recoiled from her brother, as if Kim Tisdale had actually walked _into_ her bedroom just then. Crestfallen, she silently gestured toward her guitar case and signed that she would take it and go to rejoin Grant. But Alipang detained her with his free hand and said to his phone, "Just a second, Kim."

With no sound, he drew her to him again. With no sound, they kissed one more time. Then Alipang nodded, and Chilena did pick up her guitar to take outside. Now, Alipang could devote his full attention to the pleasant-surprise call from Kim.

Chilena returned to the backyard with a smile that lit up the property. Yes, her Al was moving onto his path with Kim, as Chil herself was doing with Dan....but it mattered greatly that, for one short but memorable instant, Al had made Kim wait while he gave one more kiss to his Wonder Twin.
 
The timing of Kim's call to Alipang had been decided, not by a wish to prevent Al and Chil from kissing, but by the time when lunch business at the Pansit Paradise had faded out and supper business had yet to begin. Being able to take a break, it had abruptly crossed Kim's mind that she _could_ phone Al. She had the technology. But she was glad that _his_ technology would not allow him to see her face as she dialled his personal number. He would have seen her looking, not like an unapproachable Amazon goddess, but like a girl who had scarcely more social life than he had; a girl who was glad that a decent boy was interested in her, even if it _didn't_ come to anything in the end.

"Hi, Al, it's me, Kim....sure, I can wait........... Well, that wasn't long.....Thanks for asking, it's been going all right here.

"Anyway, I had a Biology question to ask you. What's the difference between 'phototactic' and 'phototropic'?"

That Kim would ask him for school help was, to Alipang, as immense a thrill as some other East High boys would have felt if Kim had asked them to the Girl-Ask-Boy Dance. This did not mean that he would have changed his making Kim wait an instant before conversing. Chilena still had her own enormous value to the boy; and why should Kim be encouraged to take him totally for granted? Maybe just ninety-eight percent for granted.

"One's an attribute of animals, the other an attribute of plants. To distinguish between them, think of a taxicab: a thing which can _move_ around. 'Phototactic' is the adjective form of 'phototaxis'--and that's the one for animals..."

"Great, Al, but what ARE they?"

"Reactions to light. If an animal, insects included, is positively phototactic, that means it has an instinct to move toward light, and to be more active IN the light. That means all the bugs around lampposts at night. A _plant_ which is positively phototropic, will _grow_ toward light."

"Thanks, Al. I'd been wondering if they were something like subroutines in photosynthesis. Hey, before you get back to your guests....have you got any more Shakespeare quotes leaking out of your head?"

"As a matter of fact, Kim, I have a very good one. Duke Theseus, in the last act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, says: 'Madmen and lovers have such seething brains.' "


~ ~ END OF PART FIFTEEN ~ ~ ​
 
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PART SIXTEEN: ADULTS ALSO EXIST​


When she could hold it in no longer, Cecilia Havens asked everyone, inside and outside the house, to gather within hearing of the sliding back door where she stood. Then---

"My very dear friends, Eric and I have something to tell you. Of all the forms of human love that God makes possible for us, married love is the only one which _absolutely_ must not and cannot be given to more than one person at a time. With other types of love, someone can be added."

Alipang and Chilena were in her audience, not holding each other because Alipang had conceded to Dan the holding of Chilena. Alipang was holding Melody and Harmony close to him. Eric was near his wife; so everyone was here. Cecilia continued: "You know that Eric and I love all our children the same as if they had been born of our bodies. God knows this, too; so He has decided that it would be okay now to let us _also_ have one who _does_ come from our bodies. My due date is May third."

If a tidal wave could be like a contracting ring, closing in from all sides onto a central point, it would be like what happened after Cecilia made her announcement. Voices high and low, soft and loud, converged on her as the owners of those voices also converged. Cecilia was being hugged, handclasped and kissed within an inch of her life, and almost had to swim in the tears of joy shed by herself and others.

As this went on, Alipang was saying to Harmony, "When the new baby gets here, YOU are going to be a BIG sister. Are you ready to be a BIG sister?"

"I can teach her how," offered Melody.

One friend hung back from the loving brawl of congratulations, but was doing so precisely _because_ she loved Cecilia dearly. Isobel Stetzer leaned against the trunk of the tree with the treehouse, eyes closed, praying:

"Father God, Your Word says that hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Forgive me if I have any sinful doubt about Your intentions; but Lord, I beg You not to defer my wonderful sister's hopes again. Please, please, _don't_ let this baby miscarry like her other ones. Please let this child have a life on _Earth,_ and go to Heaven later. At the same time, let Your Holy Spirit fill Al, Chil, Melody and Harmony with love for their new sibling, so there will be no jealousy to break Eric and Cecilia's hearts when they should be rejoicing. I ask all this in the name of Jesus, amen."
 
Summer arrived at the Havens house with her parents before the happy uproar over Cecilia's pregnancy had subsided. Brendan Hyland and Gilberto Costamesa helped Mrs. Heron to bring Mr. Heron and his wheelchair into the house, where Melody Havens officiously volunteered to fetch whatever Summer's father might need. Alipang's Escrima buddy Tyrone Paulson told Summer the news, though stammering as he said it. After seeking out Mrs. Havens and promising to pray hard for her, Summer looked for Alipang.

She found Chilena before she found Alipang. Chilena and Grant, now that the baby bulletin had run its course, were again playing songs together. At the first break, though, Chilena told Summer, "Al will be available in a few minutes. He carried Harmony up into the treehouse to talk with her about how important she's going to be as a big sister to the new baby."

When Alipang descended, again carrying his youngest sister, Summer asked if she could speak with him privately. "Privately?" echoed her pal with a smile. "Good luck!"

"Go back up the tree with her," Chilena suggested; and Alipang and Summer followed her suggestion.

In the treehouse, Alipang seated himself with his back to the south wall, his legs thrust out before him. Summer then sat against the east wall...and, sticking her own legs out, rested her feet on his thighs. It was the kind of relaxed familiarity she would have practiced with Al if he had been her brother; now she would allow it to herself, before the chance was gone forever. Allowing her feet to stay there without comment, Al inquired, "What's up?"

Summer's smile was so poignantly beautiful as to cause Alipang, also, to reflect fleetingly on roads not taken.

"You've been so good to me, Al--there for me when I needed you. I remember the first time I told you I would submit any future boyfriend for your inspection. Well...do you remember the boy Evan whom I told you about?"

Alipang was genuinely happy for her at the implication of her words. "He's it?"

Summer smiled back. "He is...if you give your permission."
 
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"I've got good news for you," Alipang told her with a grin. "You know, or you should know, how I like to investigate things and stay ahead of things. Remember the first week of the semester, when Chilena was afraid that that LeMarque boy was some kind of stalker? I looked around, and asked around, and he came out clean. Do you think I _wouldn't_ start snooping when my favorite season of the year began to be in season with a new boy?"

Summer stared, then assumed a mock-scolding look. "Why, Alipang Havens, you _rascal!_ So you already ran your background check on Evan?" In this make-believe indignation, she fleetingly considered challenging him to wrestle; but the time for that to be possible between them had passed.

"With a little help from my friends. That includes friends OF friends--meaning that I was able to talk with two girls he's hung out with in the past. Each girl said he'd been a gentleman to her, and the eventual parting of ways had been painless. I think you have a winner, Summer; so I'll let him live."

"Thank you, Al. Evan will be here in less than half an hour; he actually knows what you are to me, and he knows that he's Simply Out of Luck if he doesn't pass muster with you. So you _will_ put his mind at ease, won't you?"

"How could I not?" Alipang stretched an arm and caught hold of the fingers on Summer's nearer hand.

She, for her part, clasped that hand of his in return, and slid closer to him, whispering, "Al....before we re-enter atmosphere, may I please, just once, do what Chilena gets to do with you all the time?"

"You mean--?" he began; but even that much, with the amenable expression on his face, emboldened Summer to proceed. As Chilena could routinely do, and as Summer had never done, Summer now sat on Alipang's lap, wound her arms around his neck, and silently snuggled up to him for a sweet moment. Then: "Thank you, Al; this is an honor."

"It's you who honor me, Summer," he whispered back. "And I hope Evan turns out to be even _better_ for you than I expect him to be."

"I think he will," she murmured, slowly turning her face more directly toward his. "But he has a very, very high standard to live up to....before he can earn THIS...." Their mouths touched, kissing each other just long enough to make the point.

"He'll be privileged when he gets that, Summer." Then they climbed back down, sharing a harmless but very private secret which would never be told to Evan, or to Chilena, or to Kim.
 
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When Summer looked for her parents to tell them that Alipang had vetted Evan, she found her mother, with Mr. Heron's wheelchair parked within her reach, speaking with Harry Richardson about an available sales job at In Step With Your Instep. Mr. Richardson's expression looked encouraging.

Meanwhile, Alipang gave himself several breaths of time to process the fact that just now, so late in the day, he and Summer actually had kissed, and on the lips no less. It felt okay--not throwing either of the two friends out of reckoning, but paying a sort of mutual respects to each other. Chilena had both Dan and Grant to keep her occupied, the latter in a duet-singing capacity; and by now almost everyone, including Mom and Dad, had at least their first round of food in front of them, if not already inside them.

Not needed for anything else at the moment, Alipang passed through the house to emerge on the front step, where he took up the vigil for Evan to come. He was almost instantly followed by eleven-year-old Lacey, Tyrone's sister, who sat beside him, taking advantage precisely of her under-underage status to lean her head sideways on her hero's shoulder.

"Is your rib any better by now, Al?"

"Now you mention it, Lacey, it is better at that. Not all the way knitted, of course, but not as quick to give me pain. I hadn't even been thinking about it. That's usually the way pain leaves us: quietly slipping away after we find something else to think about." He gave the little African-American girl a side hug. "And for good or bad, being young leaves most of us the same way. Once you're on your way to your senior prom, you'll shake your head and wonder how you went to sleep at age eleven and woke up at age seventeen."

"Will you investigate my boyfriends for me, Al?" She had not heard the treehouse conversation with Summer, but she already knew Al's amateur-detective propensities.

"If I'm available to do it then, sure." Another side hug, which this time Lacey returned earnestly.

"You mean, if you're not married to Kim and raising your first kid by then," the child ventured.

Alipang shrugged. "That possibility is one thing which is NOT moving fast."

By the time Evan Rand came up the front walk, Lacey had withdrawn. Summer's new beau got a good, clear sight of the still-seated Alipang flipping and whirling his balisong knife, open and shut, open and shut, changing hands a few times. But Evan wasn't forced to hang back for more time than it took Al, simultaneously with the blade handling, to smile at him and say:

"Jessica Starkweather and Luisa Quintero both answered questions for me. You know Luisa is the daughter of my Dad's dental partner. I feel free to tell you this, because the girls had nothing but good to say about you, and others I questioned were the same." He closed and pocketed his knife, stood up, and shook Evan's hand. "My house is your house, and my friend-friend is your girlfriend."

He was polite enough not to react to the relieved look on Evan's face. Now Summer, who had been peeking through a windowblind, came out the door to hug Evan and lead him into the Havens residence, Alipang allowing them to precede him.
 
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Having been included in the Saturday expedition to Assateague Island, Wilson Kramer and his son Quinn enjoyed some father-and-son activities at the county forest preserve during the time of the Havens cookout. That evening, Wilson got caught up on his online industrial-security consulting projects, while Quinn surfed and chatted on his own purity-guarded computer.

After almost two hours of this, Quinn came into his father's office with a solemn expression. "Dad, I just got an e-mail I sure wasn't expecting."

"Spam?"

"Mom."

Following Quinn back to his room, Wilson read the message that the boy called up for him:

Darling Son,

This is your Mom! :D:D:D You don't have to tell your father you received this; you are a person with rights just as I am. I love you.

I found your e-mail address through one of the Star Trek fan forums you post on. When I saw your username "Ferengi_Flu," I knew that was my own boy. I was the one who got you that Star Trek video with a Ferengi story that you watched over and over when you had the flu at age six.

Now that I've found you, I know you're old enough to understand some things which you may not have been mature enough to understand at the time I grabbed my freedom.

You can't ever be any good for other people if you're not good to YOURSELF first. Loving yourself IS the greatest love of all, just as that song says. If I had stayed trapped in a marriage without fulfillment for myself, I would have been so unhappy that I would have damaged YOUR self-love besides. I actually did you a favor by not making you have to watch ME being unhappy and confined. But I confess, I didn't expect that horrid sexist male judge to deny me all visitation rights with you, just because of a few times when I offered you the stimulating challenge of being on your own for awhile. I think about you every day; it boosts my self-esteem to remember that I made such a handsome boy. Craig would have been happy to have you visit with us anytime, if your father would have been FAIR about it.

But maybe it isn't too late. Now that I can e-mail you, you can tell me all about what you've been up to. And eventually, perhaps you can talk your father into letting you visit us. Craig and I would love to show you a modern, open-minded lifestyle, worlds away from your father's religious linear thinking. You could learn real freedom of selfhood, the freedom that lets you walk away from confinement and outdated rules.

I love you, Quinn. My self-love loves your self-love. Kisses. Hugs. Write soon.

MOTHER


When Quinn saw that his father had finished reading, he said, "Since she's so much for herself, Dad, I plan to write back just once, and tell her exactly what she can go do to herself." He was winning the fight against tears of grief and outrage, but his father could see that there WAS a fight.

Wilson hugged his boy. "No, son, don't do that. She still is a soul that Jesus died to save, and we need to pray that she will find that salvation. I always do pray that for her, though I haven't spoken about it to you."

"Then what should I do, Dad?"

"Let it be the adversary who overextends herself, not our side. Don't make ANY response tonight. See if she writes again. If she does, ask the Lord to guide your actions, and then make the reply that you believe He wants you to make. Only don't be hateful and vengeful. I've already imagined enough revenge on her for both of us. Allow for at least a forlorn possibility that she still might one day come to know Jesus. She said one true thing, anyway, which is that YOU also have rights."
 
The last guest to leave the Havens household was Dan Salisbury, whose mother had driven home earlier, leaving it to Chilena to drive Dan home before 11 p.m.

Alipang gave his sister and her boyfriend plenty of space, catching up on his schoolwork which had been untouched since Friday. Along with this, he went over Chilena's assignments--the two siblings did not share all the same courses--and wrote notes to help her zip through her own work.


Up in the master bedroom, Eric and Cecilia Havens were very, very, very close together.

"Cecilia, I think that with yesterday and today, we've repaid every social invitation we've received this calendar year. Do you want to put a moratorium on entertaining now, until the new baby is with us for the next party?"

She nestled against him in a soft ecstasy of love which time had not dulled, then withdrew--not emotionally, only positionally, to talk. "Probably yes, darling, though I won't be adamant about it. If we had a party _before_ my due date, and then...."

To spare his wife from having to finish the dreaded thought, Eric leaned in over her, whispering, "Please trust our Lord, sweetheart. I believe He _does_ mean to give us this one." Then he kissed her twice, and returned to lying on his back beside her. "Anyway, a baby shower given TO you by your friends isn't the same thing as US hosting another party. I think we can certainly put parties _here_ on hold at least until Christmas." He turned his head her way, finding her cheek and putting one more kiss there. "Good night, Cecilia. I love you."

Instead of going to sleep, however, she sent her arms winding around Eric once again. "Hey, mister, who told you we were finished?" She began kissing his face, neck and chest, with an intentness which was growing, not fading into dreams.

"Are you sure about this, honey?"

"Never was more sure. It won't be long till I have all the bloating and aching to slow me down; but for tonight, I'm still Homeschool Heroine. So come on, Dynamic Dentist, and show me your superpowers."

He did.
 
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