The First Love Of Alipang Havens

Summer and Evan finished eating, paid, wished everyone a merry Christmas, and left...but not before Alipang had made a request of Evan. "When you get in your car and pull out, look around and see if you spot any strangers who look like they're watching this place. If you do, honk your horn twice as you drive off."

"If you say so," agreed Evan.

"What's the matter, Al?" Summer asked.

"Maybe nothing..." Alipang muttered.

"He thinks gangsters are out to get us," Kim told Summer a bit irritably. "He's even said so to the Imadas."

Evan drove away with Summer...and did not sound his horn. "There, now will you lighten up?" said Kim. No more new customers had entered; now only Chilena, Dan and the Tisdales were still seated, taking their time eating to keep Alipang and Kim company. Several more minutes passed....

And a car pulled up fast and hard in front of the door.

In Tagalog, which the Imadas and Chilena would understand, Alipang exclaimed, "It's trouble!" At the same time as saying this, he hefted the chemical fire extinguisher.

In through the entrance burst a Hispanic man, with another behind him ready to follow him in. Alipang had time to notice two things. The man in the lead was halfway through the action of drawing a gun from his coat...and he had a smirking look on his face which dismissed any possibility of his being a law-enforcement officer on legitimate business.

But Alipang had already known what was coming. His response did not have to wait until after his brain had registered the visual proof of the threat; he was _already_ shooting potassium powder under high pressure straight into the gunman's leering eyes.
 
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Alipang tried to get some of the powder into the second gangster's eyes also, but could not be sure in that first flash of action whether he had succeeded. So, all in one motion, he dropped the fire extinguisher, added a stamping kick into the stomach of the first gangster, and swept the dropped gun away behind him with the same foot as it came down.

Dan and Chilena, meanwhile, were already on the floor. Kim began to shout at Alipang--wanting to believe that he was being crazy, rather than believe that organized criminals were specifically out to get her sister; but Mrs. Tisdale grabbed both her daughters, dragged them farther away from the action, and overturned a table to take shelter with them behind it.

Very few persons who had not fought Alipang understood just how strong or how quick he was. His kick sent the first criminal crashing into the second, and sent them both sprawling against the car from which they had just emerged--blocking the view, and impeding the response, of the getaway driver.

Flying out after the thugs as if tethered to them, Alipang pounced on gunman number two before he could recover his balance--or move out of his position which was preventing the driver from firing his own gun out the already-open driver's-side window. Gunman number two had not been blinded by the fire extinguisher, he had been too precisely behind his partner; but a smashing punch into his solar plexus, driven by all the fierce energy Alipang could exert, put him out of action at least momentarily even through the bulletproof vest he was wearing.

The getaway driver, scum though he was, at least was loyal to his compadres. Instead of driving off to save himself, he tried to bring his gun to bear on Alipang as soon as the second man began to fall clear. But Alipang anticipated him, clamped one hand over the top of the weapon and forced it out of his grasp--though not before several rounds had gone off. These bullets ricocheted off the restaurant's doorstep and broke the front window; fortunately, no one was hit by the bullets or the glass fragments.

Kicking gunman number two's gun away as he had done with gunman number one, the young Escrimador trained the last firearm on the man he had taken it from. "Turn off that engine, and get out of the car!" He backed up as he said this, lest he give the driver a chance to hit him with the car door.
 
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The driver was reluctantly obeying the order which his own Mac-10 was offering to enforce...when the chemical-blinded man, with a strong will and having followed the unfamiliar voice, crudely grabbed Alipang around the legs.

Taken by surprise, the youth toppled, but did not lose hold of the machine-pistol. The driver was already making a lunge to take back the weapon...but he had to settle for getting the bullets. None of the three criminals understood that this was no panicky child or stupidly overconfident jock. Although Alipang had never killed anyone up till now, he had had enemies try to kill him back in the Philippines; so he was far past freezing in helpless fear. No expertise was needed at this range, and the enemy springing upon him deserved no mercy. A firm pull on the trigger, and the Mac-10 emptied its magazine into a thug who had fatally underestimated his adversary.

Already dead before he fell, the driver's corpse was pushed back by the force of the bullets. Hearing the click as the gun went empty, the blinded man tried to work his grasping hands up to Alipang's throat, or to an arm he could try to break. But Alipang twisted round like a mongoose, and smashed his forearm down onto the gangster's neck, putting him out of action.

A female shriek sounded from inside: "AL!!"--cutting through even the ringing in his ears from the gunshots. The second, longer burst was too much for Kim; she forgot everything else for an instant--she was convinced her boyfriend had been shot, and the last words he had heard from her had been to complain against his worrying. Kim erupted from the door and into the narrow passage between car and storefront, her dark eyes wide and wildly searching. She caught sight of Alipang, who was up on his feet again, looking past her at something _behind_ her...

There was no time to feel relieved. On the other side of Kim was gunman number two, not seriously damaged, recovering from the solar plexus punch thanks to his body armor. He was getting up, aware that he had no gun, but reaching for the readymade hostage.

Kim's adrenaline was up to match Alipang's; though she had no such skill as he, she had the frantic stimulation of the moment. Just as Alipang had not been slowed by having to _study_ the gunmen before taking action, Kim didn't wait to turn and gaze upon the still-functional enemy behind her; instead, she hurled herself with all her might back in the direction she had come from, evading the attempted grab.

That was all Alipang needed. With a headlong football tackle that would have delighted his friend Brickpile, he rammed the gangster and forced him backward, away from the restaurant entrance and into more open space.

But the Hispanic tough was no pushover. Even as he staggered, he landed a blow to Alipang's temple--a blow that would have put the boy out if launched from a stable stance, and which did throw Alipang to one side. By the time he was on firm feet again, his enemy had noted that his own gun was not near enough to retrieve handily, and so had brought forth a switchblade knife, its blade longer than that of the Escrimador's balisong knife.

Alipang backpedalled--purposely away from the building, to draw the thug away from there. Then he opened his own knife, undismayed by its shorter blade; he knew how to deliver it on target.

"Give up now!" he shouted at gunman number two. "Last chance!"
 
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Yelling some filth in Spanish, the taller man charged--but not recklessly, NOT leading with his knife hand and inviting Alipang to slash the knife wrist and win in a single move. Alipang evaded the first knife-lunge; his enemy avoided overextending himself...

And then the real fight was on. Fast as a rapier duel in a Zorro movie, both fighters tried cuts and jabs at various body parts, each one's left hand slapping the back of the other's knife hand when a parry was needed. Master Pitik would have approved the technique of both. Alipang scored the first two touches, to his foe's torso--but not with enough impact to penetrate the kevlar on his moving target.

Pitik's brother, meanwhile, hustled his wife, with Dan and Chilena, through the kitchen and out the alley door. Carmen was making the call to the police on her cellphone even as she exited. Then, with the Tisdales still to be accounted for, Mr. Imada grabbed up the big parang knife and headed back into the dining area. He ignored the gun which lay on the floor inside, as he would not have been confident of using it to good effect. Betsy Tisdale was screaming her lungs out; she, Kim and their mother, however, were all unhurt.

"Go out the kitchen!" Rafael Imada shouted at Kim; and Kim had the presence of mind to shepherd the other two women toward the back door. Mr. Imada went out the front, where he first ascertained that two of the three felons were neutralized. Then he started toward the deadly contest being fought out in the parking lot. He did not at once plunge into it--not because he was afraid for himself, but because a badly-timed move could throw Alipang off balance and get HIM killed. He would only jump in if it became obvious that his inaction would be worse than his interference.

Seeing his boss from the corner of one eye, Alipang understood that he had a reserve; but he intended to win this fight himself. He slipped outside a lunge by the longer knife, and trapped the opposing knife arm. He almost made the disarm; but the man hit him with a head-butt, while Alipang's head had not stopped hurting from the temple blow. The gangster saw the youth seeming to stagger dizzily...tried to press his advantage...and was caught off guard as Alipang proved not so dizzy after all.

In a highly risky attack inside the other man's circle, Alipang wounded the thug's right hand. Knowing he had cut well, he hopped back, gesturing to Mr. Imada to stay back also. "One more chance! Give up!" he called.

But the hoodlum opted for machismo...and had skill and tenacity to back it up. Shifting his knife to his left hand, and still holding his right hand on guard though wounded, he attacked with everything he had. Alipang soon changed his own knife hand, so he would have a parrying hand on the threat side. The exchange grew faster, faster....less evading, more attacking...

Suddenly the thug tried a kneecap kick. Alipang leg-blocked it, but had to give ground a little to keep his balance. The man closed in, trying desperately for a finisher--

And all at once, like a freeze-frame in a movie...the fight was over. Alipang had been watching his opponent's moves the whole time, looking for a pattern, looking for a weakness; and now he had found his opening for the best target, a target not shielded by kevlar. His five-inch balisong blade was more than long enough to lay the man's whole throat open, almost literally from ear to ear.

Gushing blood onto his slayer, the man toppled and died on the asphalt.

When Alipang turned to face his employer, Uncle Rafael felt he didn't know this young man. Alipang should be horrified, crying or something; but he was all hard and cold. "You saw it, sir," he said emotionlessly--in Tagalog. "I gave him a fair chance to surrender."

"Yes, you did, Al," replied Rafael, also in their ancestral tongue. "But we need to put down these blades, before the police get here. They all know us, but when gunshots have been fired, we don't want to take any risk of ourselves looking dangerous in a cop's eyes."

The victor nodded, tossing his knife off to one side after he had wiped it and closed it. Then the hardness faded, and his eyes widened, as he remembered his loved ones. As he started back toward the Pansit Paradise, he asked, "Kim and Chilena? Are they safe?"

Mr. Imada reverted to English to tell him, "They're okay, thanks to you. They'll probably come out on the street and meet the cops before we do." He and Alipang re-entered the restaurant, where Mr. Imada said, "Sit down, and for God's sake try not to look like someone who needs to be shot. I think I hear the sirens." Mr. Imada picked up two unused glasses of water from one of the tables, went back outside, found the blinded man regaining consciousness and moaning pitifully, and washed the potassium powder out of the gangster's eyes. With such a delay in being able to render aid, he didn't know if the man would be permanently blind. Nor could he care greatly; but he still performed what mercy he could.
 
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Two city squad cars--the total number usually on duty at one time in Smoky Lake--pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall, and Carmen Imada was first to meet them. "I made the call, officers; I don't know if any crooks are still standing, but for God's sake, don't shoot anyone who looks Filipino!"

The four cops, three men and a woman, deployed onto the scene, guns drawn but finding no one to shoot. Rafael Imada gained their attention. "You have two dead gangsters, officers: one shot over there, the other knifed over there. A third gangster incapacitated, next to the shot one."

One patrolman in the group, familiar with the Pansit Paradise, asked simply, "Was Alipang working here tonight?"

Rafael nodded. "Yes, he was, Dave, but the last three customers to arrive had very bad manners; they wanted a take-out order, to take out the girlfriend of a felony case witness."

The policeman Dave caught a glimpse, through the broken window, of Alipang sitting passively on a chair inside, soaked with blood. "And I take it your waiter had to enforce restaurant policy?"

Rafael's voice lost its gallows humor. "That's right, sir. Two of the three came in drawing guns. But Al is close to the family of the intended victim--"

"Would that be Baeline Tisdale? With the boyfriend on the stand for that freight-company case?" Even as Dave spoke, the policewoman and one of the male officers were taking the blinded criminal into custody, while the fourth cop went inside to question Alipang.

Rafael nodded to Dave, as Carmen was coming up to embrace him. "Alipang is dating Baeline's sister, who also works here. So he knew about the insurance-fraud arrests; and he had a hunch someone would try to silence that Bollinger fellow by kidnapping Baeline. And because he was paranoid, he was ready to head off the gunmen before they could draw."

Meanwhile, inside, Alipang was giving a similar account of events to the fourth officer. The officer listened to the initial stages of the encounter, then cut to the chase: "Then you _shot_ the driver?"

"Yes, sir, in self-defense. He was trying to get the gun back from me as the first man held my legs."

"Have you ever used a firearm before, Al?"

"Only my father's shotgun, sir. But Deputy Kramer has shown me the guns in his collection, and explained how they work. And it didn't take much experience for me to shoot a man who was right there lunging at me."

"Then you killed the other man, the one who had been second in the original attack?"

"Yes, sir: a fair fight, with knives. I gave him two chances to surrender, but he wouldn't."

"Son, you look awfully calm for a boy who just killed two men. Are you sure there isn't more to this story than you're telling me?"

"I'm sure there IS more to it, sir; but the part I know, I've told you. As for being calm--the people I care about are safe, so I'm satisfied. I never took a human life before, but I've killed many poisonous snakes. Tonight--just two more snakes."
 
Two girls wanted very much to see Alipang right now. Dan released one; Mrs. Tisdale released the other. They practically collided heading for the restaurant's front entrance; then they looked each other in the eye--not with rivalry or anger, only a certain uneasiness. In that moment, without saying anything about it, Kim Tisdale came as close as she had ever come to realizing exactly HOW deeply Chilena Havens loved her adoptive brother; and without saying anything about it, Chilena sensed that the older, slightly taller girl was close to seeing the bittersweet secret she carried in her heart.

"Please," Kim half-whispered, imploringly. "He still belongs to you more than he does to me so far; but you haven't offended him, and I have. Please let me ask his forgiveness first."

Chilena lowered her eyes. "Of course. And I'm sorry for every time I've--yes, I'll say it, every time I've been jealous of his attention to you."

So much soul-baring carried a weight and a value of its own, even on this already-dramatic evening. Kim and Chilena spontaneously embraced and kissed each other; then Chilena stood back, and Kim went inside.

The cop who had questioned Alipang was still there. He detained Kim long enough to ask, "Did you give your statement, miss?"

"Yes!" Kim replied impatiently, as her eyes got a better look at just how much blood was all over Alipang. "We were being attacked, and Al did everything he did in defense of his own life and the rest of us! Now will you please let me talk to him?" The officer finally withdrew.

Alipang wanted to stand up to greet Kim; but he found he felt weak. Not frightened, because the danger was overcome; nor guilty, because his every action had been justified; but he was exhausted. He said to her, "You can just think the hug at me. I'm a mess right now."

Disregarding the suggestion, Kim straddled him where he sat, hugging him front to front and kissing him with something like real passion for the first time. As his own arms rallied enough to hug her in return, she murmured to him, "I'm sorry, Al, really sorry. I underestimated you again, and I dissed you again. Please don't break up with me for that; I....I....I still want to be your girlfriend."

"You are," he affirmed simply. Then he kissed her with something like real passion for the first time, and contrived to joke about it. "I guess Valentine's Day got moved up early."

"Or maybe Uncle Rafael has mistletoe hung up in here that we didn't notice. Let's just assume he does;" and they kissed with something like real passion.

When Kim departed to make way for Chilena to come to Alipang, Chilena confined her own physical demonstration to grasping and kissing her brother's hand. After what had just transpired with Kim, Chilena didn't want to do anything that seemed to be competing at all with Kim, apples against oranges.

As a surprise bonus, when Chilena started back to the patiently waiting Dan, Kim's sister Betsy, the involuntary cause of the whole deadly incident, came up to Alipang and kissed him almost as emphatically as Kim had done. "Thank you, Al. Thank you so much. I hope Kimmy will marry you after you turn eighteen; but if she doesn't, then give me a call."
 
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Dave the cop had a brother-in-law who ran Smoky Lake's leading window business. It would be grossly unethical for a policeman to use a crime incident to bring profit to someone in his own family; but if the family member were willing to make a _gift_ to the Imadas, in the spirit of Christmas....

And so it happened. Scarcely half an hour after being called, the brother-in-law pulled up as close to the Pansit Paradise as crime-scene tape would let him, bringing a new windowpane sized to replace the bullet-smashed one. Police Chief Costamesa was on the scene by then, and saw to it that the window area was quickly photographed, so that the new pane could be installed without delay. The generous glazier had two helpers to assist him, under his guidance, in installing the replacement glass: Rafael Imada, and Dan Salisbury.

For as Chilena had yielded first claim on Alipang to Kim, Dan had yielded first claim on Chilena to Alipang.


No one had been so ridiculous as even to suggest charging Alipang with any crime; "change" had not yet metastasized as far as that. Eric Havens came for his son and eldest daughter in the family SUV, with old towels covering one seat in view of Alipang's clothes being drenched in blood. Cecilia Havens was waiting at home with Melody and Harmony.

As soon as Mrs. Havens beheld her son coming in the door, even though the police had told her on the phone that none of the blood covering her son was his own, she uttered a sobbing scream at the sight of him. Her scream was more frightening to the little ones than their brother's visible condition. Ungainly with her pregnancy, Mrs. Havens nonetheless hastened to clasp her boy to her; for his part, the only reason he didn't fling his own arms around his mother was because he didn't want to get more gangster-blood onto her than she was getting on herself, though it was mostly dry by now. After a flood of weepy but highly appropriate motherly endearments, she choked out something that Alipang wasn't expecting to hear:

"Al, honey...wasn't there some way for you to _reason_ with them?"

There are all sorts of triggers which can release a delayed reaction to a traumatic experience. For Alipang, the trigger was this unspeakably absurd sentence from his beloved adoptive mother's mouth. Right there in her embrace, he exploded into hysterical, howling, gasping laughter. The spasms of laughing overwhelmed him like an avalanche, finally dropping him onto the same living room floor on which he and Chilena had wrestled and snuggled and kissed so many times. This went on for three full minutes; Alipang could barely master his diaphragm to force it to inhale between waves of laughter. When he regained enough mastery to be able to pronounce a few words, he chose those words to alleviate Mom's embarrassment as far as possible:

"Mom....I love you....so much....but....really....!"

Then the hysterics reclaimed him. Eventually, his Dad helped him up from the floor, helped him to the shower stall of the main-floor bathroom, and helped him pull off the gory clothes. (These went into a plastic bag, not to be washed, in case the police wanted them for a laboratory.) Meanwhile, Chilena was trying to explain to her bewildered little sisters why Al-Al had been covered with blood--without telling them that their big brother had slain two evildoers on Christmas Eve.


That night saw a re-enactment of the Havens family's first night sleeping in this house, so long ago. Melody and Harmony crowded into their parents' bed for protection against nightmares after what they had seen. Alipang and Chilena, fully clothed, lay on the floor of the master bedroom in a tight full-body embrace, and fell asleep still clinging together.


~ ~ END OF PART TWENTY ~ ~ ​
 
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PART TWENTY-ONE:
NOT ONLY THE YEAR IS NEW​


One often hears of people "sleeping in each other's arms." The reality is that usually the persons involved slump OUT OF each other's arms soon after falling asleep, if not indeed before. But on Christmas morning of 2008, in the house on Liddell Street, Alipang and Chilena woke up every bit as tightly wrapped in each other's arms as they had fallen asleep the night before. What each may have dreamed in the night, this narrative is not concerned to report.

Awakening, as usual, ahead of the rest of the family--a fact they could confirm the more easily for being all in the same room--Alipang and Chilena silently took in the fact that yes, they were both safe and well. In equal silence, they passed several minutes exactly where they lay, squeezing and kissing each other. Then they rose to their feet, creeping out of the master bedroom and downstairs to start breakfast for the others; and a subdued but no less loving Christmas Day began for the Havens family.

There were visitors all through the day. First to come, interrupting the breakfast-making by bringing a ready-made breakfast for the Havens, were the Tisdales--all of them, even Dumpy the basset hound, Esmeralda the Airedale and Leo the cat. Mrs. Tisdale, Susan and Sharon saw to it that Alipang could say he had been thanked and kissed by _every_ one of the Tisdales (the human ones, anyway). Kim surprised Alipang by herself quoting Shakespeare with application to him: "Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Tom and Isobel Stetzer were out of town, celebrating Christmas with their grown children; but on behalf of Redemption Free Church, Harry and Kwai Richardson came by, while the Tisdales were still there, to ask how Alipang was doing. News of Alipang's exploit had flown fast; but the Tisdales were able to give the Richardsons much more detail of events. "Alipang," Harry said at one point, "you may know the story of a soldier named Alvin York. If you don't, I know you can look it up easily enough. What matters is that Sergeant York had no desire to take any human life; but when it came down to the need to take sides, he took lives in unavoidable necessity, to save _other_ lives."

"Thank you, sir," Alipang replied. "As a matter of fact, I hadn't heard of Sergeant York before; Mom never dwelt on wars when she taught us history. But I will do a search on him."

Late in the morning, a crowd of Alipang's male friends visited: Brendan Hyland, Sammy Ashford, Jason Katon, Dan Salisbury, Gilberto Costamesa, Pete Gordon, Brickpile Pelham the football player, and Grant Perry the worship singer. The last of these told Alipang simply, "I'm sorry for the guilt trips I've put on you since the semester started. I know that nothing you did last night was done out of any love for violence; it was done out of love for PEOPLE, when there was no other choice."

Grant was the one male visitor that day whom Alipang hugged.

Wilson and Quinn Kramer came in the afternoon, and Quinn related how his mother was asking him questions by e-mail about faith and salvation. While this was going on, Chilena's biological brother Mike Jakekens telephoned; Chilena took the call, and exchanged news with Mike--saving the grimmest news until happier things had been told. Another concerned call came from Luis Quintero, Dr. Havens' dental partner.

The last visitor that Christmas was Summer Heron, alone. Ringing the doorbell after supper, she stepped in without speaking when Melody opened the door, saw Alipang coming downstairs to greet her, walked up to him without speaking as he descended into the living room, and wound her arms around him. He hugged her in return, and they stood holding each other for a long while in the sight of the entire Havens family. Chilena mentally noted that a corner of her brain _still_ wished Summer had been her brother's sweetheart.

Alipang walked Summer out to her car; before getting in, she softly said to him, "We're both where we're supposed to be, Al....but I still remember the treehouse."

"So do I, Summer. Merry Christmas."
 
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On the day after Christmas, Police Chief Costamesa came to the Havens home with news. "Alipang, the man you left alive for us is expected to recover his eyesight; and _we've_ recovered his identity. He's a Mexican illegal, part-time activist for the Aztlan cultural-takeover movement. His past career south of the border was more impressive. He, and probably the other two, were living in Maryland lately; local authorities there have been giving illegals a free ride for years. Someone connected with the insurance-fraud racket had them brought in from Maryland because we wouldn't recognize them as a threat." Costamesa sighed. "Even in a small city like Smoky Lake, we can't look over _every_ car that comes driving in off the Interstate. But the F.B.I. has now provided some corroborating evidence connecting those three to the suspects in the fraud case, even though the survivor hasn't confessed anything yet."

Eric Havens, who had given himself a day off his dental practice to remain close to his son, was also present for this. Now he asked, "Has anyone started a campaign yet to condemn Al as a _white_ supremacist for this?"

"Not so far." The Chief turned back to Alipang. "I'm sorry we had to impound your knife, son. Even though you committed no crime, your blade still is a piece of evidence."

"Sir, will I have to testify in court?"

"Afraid so, Al. You are the only living person who saw the getaway driver trying to draw a gun on you from where he sat....just as you were the only person who saw the first gunman starting to draw as he entered the Pansit, just before you blinded him. But don't be afraid of jerk defense lawyers, Al; God is clearly with you. If God hadn't been with you, the thugs would have come in _already_ shooting, and you wouldn't be here."

"When will the surviving crook stand trial?" asked Cecilia.

"As soon as the Commonwealth of Virginia can get the ball rolling, for his case is obviously linked to the case already in progress. Al could be taking the stand as early as, oh, soon after the Presidential inauguration. It could have been sooner than that, if the accused didn't have to spend some time in Shilohsville General Hospital first."

Alipang said, with no sign of it being a joke, "I bet this will end up stopping me from taking Kim to the prom."
 
Despite having his broken front window replaced on the same night it was broken, Rafael Imada kept the Pansit Paradise closed until the Sunday after Christmas. He expected people for a little while to feel an irrational fear of coming to a place where a major crime had been attempted and two of the criminals had perished. Besides, his wife needed time to recover emotionally herself.

On Sunday at Redemption Free Church, Tom Stetzer delivered his sermon in awareness of the Imadas' situation. He spoke of how King David and his followers had to struggle to get things back to a semblance of normality in Israel after the end of Absalom's rebellion, and concluded by calling on church members to help Rafael and Carmen get back to normal.

Alipang, sitting between Kim and Chilena toward the back of the church, was glad that Pastor Stetzer made no mention of him. He was not the least bit ashamed of what he had done under the lash of desperate necessity; but he didn't want his friends to be _defining_ him from now on as The Boy Who Killed Two Gangsters. There was inevitably going to be some of that when school resumed in January; he didn't need it in church or at the restaurant.

The Pansit Paradise reopened for business at 12:45 that afternoon. By 12:50, the tables and booths were filled to capacity--entirely with persons who had come over from Redemption Church, which in this case included Summer and Evan. The Tisdales, among the very first to enter, made a heroic effort to act as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Some others glanced at the scene of recent violence with a look of horrified fascination, but said nothing.

Alipang, as it worked out, was not assigned to wait on anyone who had been present on Christmas Eve. He briefly worried that this would make him more, not less, likely to be bombarded with questions; but his customers, including the Stetzers and the Richardsons, left him in peace.

The nearest anyone came during this lunch period to mentioning the warrior-waiter's exploit was when Isobel Stetzer addressed him: "Al, dear, you've heard that we plan to have another Pray In The New Year night at the church this year. Do you feel up to attending?"

"Very likely, ma'am, though I'll need to find out what both Kim and my family have in mind for that night."

Kim proved to be in favor of the prayer night. As for the Havens family, they made accommodation by dosing themselves heavily with Alipang's presence in the time preceding New Year's Eve. That very Sunday night, Alipang and Chilena had another downstairs meeting, in which they were essentially glued to each other for nearly two hours. The following evening, Melody and Harmony were treated to a VeggieTales marathon, during which their big brother outdid himself in acting along as the various characters. And on each day of the interval, he got in substantial time praying with his parents.
 
"PITNY," as the Redemption Church youth called the annual Pray In The New Year meeting, was well attended--though Chilena was with Dan Salisbury and his mother, seeing in the New Year over pizza and popcorn at the Heron household, with Summer, Summer's parents and Evan. This was Chilena's way of simultaneously having a sort of date with her patient boyfriend in Alipang's absence; seeing the Heron family, of whom she had not seen very much lately; and letting Kim, who was at the prayer marathon, have clear dibs on Alipang.

Alipang and Kim had only had to work the lunch shift at the Pansit Paradise, which freed them for this.

During the first hour of the gathering, there was casual worship led by Shavonda the worship-team director, and a Bible study given by Harry Richardson. Testimonies of recent answers to prayer followed, then a few more songs, after which males and females were separated for about an hour, to share and pray about any issues that anyone didn't want to talk about in the hearing of the opposite sex.

Taking advantage of the all-female session, Kim brought up her uncertainties about how to manage her relationship with Alipang. Alipang did not do the equivalent in the male group--not because the relationship was less important to him than it was to Kim, but because (apart from praying) he was barely saying a word to anyone that night. This was not a matter of unfriendliness; Alipang simply was afraid that any conversation he was in might turn to the subject of his killing the two gangsters on Christmas Eve.

Alipang understood better now why combat soldiers tended to avoid talking about their battles.

When everyone was together again, they had refreshments, and watched the movie "End of the Spear," dramatizing the aftermath of the historic martyrdom of missionary James Elliott and his comrades. Alipang waited for someone to be an idiot and lecture him that he should have been like James Elliott and meekly submitted to death when the gunmen had invaded the Pansit Paradise. If this browbeating had happened, he would have told the lecturer that the slain missionaries had been particularly consecrated to a mission which especially needed nonviolence, AND that their sacrifice laid down only their OWN lives, not abandoning to murder anyone who was not accepting death voluntarily. Betsy Tisdale had not voluntarily consecrated herself to being kidnapped and probably murdered by Mexican gangsters.

But no one tried to make Alipang feel guilty for defending everyone in the restaurant from criminal predators. Grant, the one person here who might once have done so, had already repented of peacefuller-than-thou self-righteousness.

The major praying, with emphasis on the nation and the world, got underway a little after eleven. As was usual for PITNY, no one paid any attention to the instant when the year 2009 began in the Eastern Time Zone. Finding plenty to intercede about, the gathering didn't even begin to break up until almost an hour after midnight. Alipang and Kim, who had come together in her car, put their serving experience to work at cleaning up the church, and thus were last to leave besides the Richardsons.

Sitting behind the wheel of her old white sedan--running the motor for heating's sake, but not yet going anyplace--Kim clasped her boyfriend's left hand, not letting herself think about this very hand having cut a man's throat. "Al, I could have lost my sister on Christmas Eve. You saved her, and you might have died saving her. In the two days following that night, I told Betsy I love her plenty of times. But it wasn't until today, looking forward to PITNY, that I realized I've never said I love YOU."

"Don't feel bad, Kim." Alipang bent and kissed Kim's hand that was holding his. "I haven't said it to you, either."

Kim sighed. "But unless I'm flattering myself too much, your only reason for never saying it is because I haven't said it. We have a gender-role reversal here! Guys are supposed to be the insensitive, unsentimental ones; but in our case, the coldness has been on MY side. And...." She looked away from him. "God knows why, but I'm still not completely past my coldness."

Alipang slid to her and kissed her right cheek. "I'll dig up a Shakespeare quote for you on that subject before school starts again; but meanwhile, don't worry. I needed time to get past my jungle-ghetto memories; and you need time to get past the things that poisoned your life, like being deserted by your father. It's all okay, because we're moving in the right direction, both as individuals and as a couple. When you do get around to saying you love me, I'll know you mean it."

Kim turned back to him, turned off the ignition for a minute, and slid her arms around him. "A couple: I like the sound of that. Happy New Year, boyfriend."

Before she restarted the engine and brought Alipang home, the two of them had exchanged more kisses in six minutes or so than the two of them had done at any and all previous times combined.
 
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Holidays are inevitably followed by other days. Inevitably, there came the Monday after New Year's Day of 2009. Inevitably, Alipang Havens had to return to Smoky Lake East High School, where most of the student body knew by now that he had slain two men.

Kim drove him to school in her car, for moral support. Still not wanting to seem loose with him, she did not kiss him once in the whole drive; but the hug she did give him after stopping in the student parking lot was a boost for his morale. They entered the south entrance hand in hand...and had not gone ten paces inside the building before they began to see how the student body was reacting. Boys and girls who were friends to Alipang, and by now there were many of these, went out of their way to greet him as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened over the holidays. He was more grateful for this than he could tell them. But many others went out of their way to get out of Alipang's way, like oceanarium fish avoiding the star-attraction shark. Some, having heard only a fragment of the truth, assumed that he must have been bailed out of prison.

One bright spot came when Callie Shore, the tall art enthusiast and former fanatical pacifist, made a beeline for where she saw Alipang and Kim pausing at Kim's locker. Saying, "With your permission, Kim," she took Alipang's head between her hands and kissed him on both cheeks.

Kim ran her eyes over other students who were looking at Alipang apprehensively. "Under the present circumstances, Callie, I believe I _thank_ you for doing that."


Flora Lewiston, the Principal, called another special assembly for second period. Kim, Chilena, Dan, the Katon siblings, Brendan, Summer, Sammy, and other loyal souls intentionally clustered around Alipang in expectation of Mrs. Lewiston's usual drivel.

Their expectations were not disappointed.

Alipang was not mentioned by name; but the students were treated to a barely coherent half-hour harangue about peace and diversity and tolerance and self-esteem and understanding and equality and heritage and nonviolence and communication and more self-esteem and fulfillment and environmentalism and hope and lifestyles and beauty and disarmament and redistribution and oneness and change and still more self-esteem and the rainbow. The ending of the speech seemed more like running out of gas than like reaching an articulated conclusion. At last Mrs. Lewiston said, "Would any student like to ask a question or offer a comment?"

Exactly one student stood up: Alipang Dumagat Havens. He said:

"Mrs. Lewiston, if _you_ had been in that restaurant on Christmas Eve, the best thing for my self-esteem and fulfillment would have been to protect you against criminal violence."

More than sixty students who had been shying away from Alipang were so refreshed to hear something which made sense, that they joined Alipang's partisans in the explosion of applause and cheering which filled the auditorium as Alipang sat down.

And Mrs. Lewiston seethed. She had word from no less than the Mayor of Smoky Lake, that if she wanted to suspend Alipang or take any adverse action against him, she had better make _really_ sure that she could justify it.

So far, she couldn't.
 
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At lunch, Alipang was the 800-pound gorilla: he could sit wherever he liked. Kim begged off sitting with him because she hadn't seen her moderate-Goth friend Peggy since before Christmas. Alipang had no objection to the girls eating together at the Goth-and-indie table; after all, he was going to do homework with Kim tonight at the Tisdale house, and for now he could pass the time asking Brendan about his military plans after graduation.

Brendan found an interesting way to preface his update:

"Did you ever see the episode of 'Star Trek: the Next Generation' that showed in a sort of flashback how Captain Picard had fought a Ferengi warship early in his career?"

"Um, no, I guess I haven't," admitted Alipang.

"The reason I mention it is that the script showed how ridiculous the rules of engagement became by Picard's time. With the Ferengi ship attacking him with everything it had, with Picard's crew taking serious casualties, Picard _still_ had to hold his fire, had to keep asking for _negotiations,_ until it was almost too late for his ship to be _able_ to fight back, before he could even retaliate. Whoever wrote that episode had NO CLUE about the priorities of survival for any kind of military unit."

Alipang wasn't getting it. "And this affects your career plans in _this_ century--how?"

" ' Change,' is how. Before this month is out, we will have a President who is close pals with Code Pink, the military-bashing organization. Anyone with such allegiances is going to favor micromanaging the armed forces, tying their hands behind their backs with Captain Picard's rules of engagement. I still want to serve in uniform, because there _have_ to be men who will; but _which_ branch of service I enter will be affected by whatever I can find out about how restricted each one will be under the new administration."


Meanwhile, Peggy was doing with Kim what no one was doing with Alipang: pressing for details about Christmas Eve. "I mean, come on, Kim, did you leave ALL the action to a BOY? Where's your girl power?"

What Kim wished to say to Peggy was, "The same place where _your_ girl power was when you failed to qualify for the boys' football team. No matter what we want to believe, most girls _aren't_ River Tam, Catwoman or Lara Croft."

What Kim did say to her delusional friend was, "I'm not saying that no girl is tough enough to do what Al did; but I know that Al is tougher than I am. Besides, I wasn't expecting any gangsters that night; Al having a premonition allowed him to prepare."

Peggy winced. "Oh no, now does he even get to take over female intuition?"

"Al doesn't claim credit for knowing there was danger. He says God warned him through a dream. It was because he had dreamed of a threat to Betsy specifically at the Pansit, that he had his survival instincts working at the max from the time she came in."

"And of course it has to be his bearded _male_ God Who gave the original warning."

Kim sighed. "Peggy, you need to be fair to Al, and get to know him better. I haven't said anything about you avoiding him; but he's part of my life now, so my friends need to accept him. If you really knew Al, you _wouldn't_ link him in your mind with all the patriarchal oppression you steam about. Al is the very _least_ oppressing boy I know; and it IS possible...that eventually he and I...."

"Don't say it!" Peggy pleaded. "At least, not yet."
 
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The following Friday night, Kim was with Alipang at Smoky Lake West, watching their own East Falcons play basketball against the West Panthers. East's varsity finally won a hairsbreadth 98-97 victory in overtime, after West's freshman-sophomore team had beaten its East counterpart 61-58, in a slower-moving game.

Fights almost never broke out between Smoky Lake's two high schools, in part because there was no sharp difference in racial composition between the two student bodies. But if there was any inclination to fight over the refereeing of tonight's ultra-close varsity game, Alipang's presence was an inhibiting factor. Word about him had reached West High, and crowds parted before him here as at East.

But the real drama of the evening didn't revolve around Alipang and Kim; it took place in their absence at the Tisdale residence, where Elizabeth and her third daughter were quietly watching television while Susan and Sharon were away at a college basketball game.

A phone call began it.

"Mrs. Tisdale? This is Lori, the woman who spoke once with you about boarding pets. I need to talk to another adult woman...and in my situation right now, my usual girlfriends to hang out with are of no use to me. I know it's an imposition, but please, could I come over and talk with you, please?"

"I'll tell you what," replied Elizabeth: "if you're willing to hold the conversation in the presence of my 20-year-old daughter Baeline, it's okay to come over. Baeline and I have been enjoying being together, and I don't plan to send her to her room."

"Oh, thank you, yes," the caller virtually gushed. "It can't do me any harm for your daughter to hear what I have to tell. Honestly, I've got very little to lose now. I'll be at your house in 15 minutes or less."

Baeline, alias Betsy, had been leaning her head on her mother's shoulder during the phone conversation. She made no objection to a visitor coming over; but when she heard who the visitor was, her head with its medium-brown hair came up in surprise. "Mom, don't you remember what Kimmy and Al were saying about that Lori? They think she's Wilson Kramer's ex-wife Lorraine!"

"You're right, I'd forgotten about that," admitted Elizabeth. "But it makes no difference. Mr. Kramer is not any _more_ out of my reach for his ex visiting me, than if she didn't visit me."

Betsy snuggled up to her mother again. "So you really have given up on Mr. Kramer?"

Mrs. Tisdale sighed. "Yeah. He wants--AND deserves--to have a woman respect him; but I just don't have enough of the old resentments and scorn flushed out of my system. If I tried to get close to him, I'd be bound sooner or later to insult him unfairly again. As it is, he doesn't hate me; so I'll leave well enough alone."
 
The evening visitor at the Tisdale house was announced by Dumpy the Basset hound and Esmeralda the Airedale. Once admitted, she did not prolong the mystery; yes, she was the unfaithful former wife of Wilson Kramer, and she was the mother who had forfeited all rights even to visit her son Quinn because of her willful neglect of him. For any informed person, she made a stark contrast to the lady of the house, who had been a _victim_ of betrayal and abandonment.

"Have a seat, Lorraine," said Elizabeth Tisdale. "I'm willing to talk with you for any constructive purpose; but I'm at a loss to know why you want to talk with me." So down they sat--two women past their first bloom but far from withered away, the one with a pleading attitude and the other with a patient but puzzled attitude.

"It ain't what you know, it's who you know," replied Lorraine. "I first showed my face in Smoky Lake to search for any clues of how I could get a chance to see my son. My first visit to you, talking about boarding pets: that was really part of a tentative idea of bribing Quinn with some new pet. But soon I learned that your family is both itself acquainted with Wilson and Quinn, and friendly with the Havens family which is friendly with my ex and my son."

Betsy, just returning from the kitchen with some herbal tea to offer to the peculiar woman, made at this point her first contribution to the conversation: "You mean you wanted somebody to be a go-between for you with Quinn?"

"More or less," Lorraine admitted. "But since I began my scouting, there's been an upturn for me with Quinn, independent from all my visits to churches and people's homes. He had blocked me from e-mailing him, but recently he relented and let me write to him...on the condition that I let him tell me things about religion." She shook her head. "He's definitely his father's son."

"Quinn is also a son of the Heavenly Father," Elizabeth remarked. "And we've seen enough of him to know that Mr. Kramer has raised a courteous, well-behaved boy." She noticed that Lorraine seemed to be forcing herself not to say something quarrelsome in reaction to this.

"If Quinn is letting you contact him," asked Betsy, in her second and last contribution, "that sounds like progress for you. So what's the problem?"

"The problem...." Lorraine paused, swallowing some of the herbal tea. "The problem is that....what went around, came around. You'll say that I deserved it, and maybe I did. Craig, that's my second husband.... has left me for another woman, a blonde bimbo from his office."

The eyes of the other two women went wide and white.
 
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