Green Harbor

CHAPTER 6

Victoria slides an envelope containing at least 10,000 Pesos towards her mother. "There. With that, you leave this country, don't even dare talk to the twins again." Her face remains emotionless and cold but the tears falling down only makes her appear like she had been imprisoned in despair. "I'll fix it, just like how you want it to be. I'm a mother of girls with the same face, after all." Victoria rises from her seat. "But in the mean time, you have to be gone."

"The twins are weeping over the wrong father—"

"Yes, and I'm gonna make sure they stay that way."

——

Zelena and Katha waited for their food to be delivered at their table, miles and miles away from where their mother and sister were. The older twin glares at Katha when she came to pick her up. They're wearing the same clothes again. They're also unrecognizable with their sunglasses and hats that cast a huge shadow on their faces.

"Rosales is arrested today." Katha looks at her twin, not paying attention. She snaps her fingers. "Hello? Gosh, what's gotten into you?"

"I wanna run away."

"You, what?"

Zelena shrugs. "I said I wanna go somewhere, like — out of this city."

Katha grins. "Where? Back to your motherland Mars?"

"I don't wanna go home later and having to face Mama. I've just embarassed myself back at the police station." Zelena leans away from the table when their food arrives. Their childhood favorite, chicken inasal. "And well, when I said I want to run away, I meant that I wanna go have a vacation somewhere else with you and Victoria."

"And ditch Mama?" Katha asks.

Her twin nods. "And ditch Mama."

"That's good, you want to rest. Maybe twins don't come with telepathy powers like myths say, but seeing you run back and forth this year makes me realize how tired you are, and how lazy I really am." Katha takes a bite out of the inasal. "And to think you were able to win Cayla's loyalty?" She waves her hand around, to emphasize. "Crazy. You sure you're my twin?"

——

Meanwhile, back at the Luka family's house, Victoria looks up to the trapdoor on their ceiling. She swore she saw that door open, revealing a pair of eyes before closing again. "I saw you. You can't just close that door and make me think I didn't see you." Growing impatient, she raises her voice. "I want to know what happened to your family, Keone."

——

The twin sisters talked and ate until it was one in the afternoon. They had to leave early as they were in a different city, and didn't want to go home late. Zelena and Katha decided on different places to stay at for at least a month : Boracay, Cebu, Manila, or Palawan. But the younger twin laughed, waved off the choices, and announced, "Let's go to all of them, we can afford it without Mama, anyway!"

Zelena is now sitting on one of the sidewalk benches while Katha gets her car. She looked at all of Katha's belongings. Katha was invited to a university for a lecture on arts, so she brought along some paintings that are now covered in plastic and cardboards. While most of the Luka family had big names as writers, Katha grew up with a passion for art. Victoria bought her art supplies while Zelena always came up with literature to match the artwork. Katha drew on walls as a baby, their father adored her, and eventually, when she grew older, he gave her a place to start an art gallery.

Maybe not all of their childhood was abusive. Maybe Katha was the soft spot of their father.

Zelena looked up when she hears horns from Katha's car. She picks up her bag and walk towards the car. Almost reaching the car, Katha points somewhere behind her, honking the horns. "Zelena, you're forgetting my paintings!"

"Well, you didn't have to honk!" Zelena laughs, walking back to get the paintings.

An explosion knocked Zelena onto her knees. Katha's car.