Then, Now, and Ever After

I Can Tell That Too

In the summer before fourth grade, Aina's parents enrolled her in the Rad Science summer camp. The truth was, she didn't really like Science in school, and she was hoping her parents would enroll her in taekwondo classes or basketball camp again, but her mother said that she really had to improve her grades in the subject (she did barely pass), so she now had no choice.

But from the very first day, Aina knew this camp was going to be different from her science classes...and actually even fun. The camp was held in one of the function rooms of the city's biggest science museum, Museo Agham. The children were all seated in a circle on the floor, with their teachers, Marie and Pierre, standing in the middle, where a table had been set up. There were two candles in the middle of the table, which were both lit.

"So you see two candles here," Teacher Pierre said, gesturing towards the candles. "Let's use this one." He separated one of them from the other, and placed it nearer to him. "I'm going to perform a magic trick with it."

He brought out a lighter from one of the front pockets of his lab coat, and lit the candle nearer to him. He blew out the other one, and placed the lighter flame in the middle of the smoke—and the candle suddenly lit up again.

There were several 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the other children. "Now let me try it with two candles," Teacher Marie said, sliding the candle back beside the other one. Teacher Pierre handed her the lighter, and after she lit it she blew out the two candles. She placed the lighter flame in the middle of the smoke, and the two candles lit up again at exactly the same time.

Some of the children now gasped. "So, can anyone explain how we were able to do this?" Teacher Pierre asked.

"Magic?" one child piped up from the floor.

"Well, no," Teacher Marie said. "But it is magic, in a way. Science can make you do magic, really."

Aina stared at the candle, trying to figure out the explanation behind it. Okay, maybe she should have listened to her teachers in science a bit more instead of spacing out, if it could actually do cool things like this. A few other kids raised their hand bravely and ventured answers, to which Teacher Marie and Pierre only smiled and shook their heads.

She noticed that the boy sitting beside her was saying something under his breath. She couldn't really hear what he was saying, but she caught the words 'wax vapor' and 'ignite'. He was scrawny and shorter than her by a couple of inches, but they looked about the same age. She nudged him. "Hey, do you know the answer?"

A look of sheer panic appeared on the boy's face. "Uh, yeah."

"If you know the answer, you should tell everyone."

The boy shook his head. "But what if they laugh at me?"

"What? Why will they laugh at you? It's okay if you get the wrong answer—"

"No," the boy said. "They'll laugh at me because I know it's the correct answer." He looked down at the floor. "They'll say I'm a nerd."

This made Aina frown, and even though she had only met this boy now, she was suddenly really angry at whoever it was that made him feel this way. "Hey, if they laugh at you," she said, nudging him again, "I'll—I'll kick them."

The boy looked up at that, eyes wide. "What?"

"Yeah. All those who are going to laugh at you. The—the teachers too, if they do."

The boy shook his head, incredulously. "You're...you're not going to do that."

"Why don't you believe I can do that? Because I'm a girl?" Aina huffed. "I'll have you know, I know taekwondo and I'm an orange belt now—"

"It's not that," the boy said. "I can tell you're really strong." His face suddenly broke into a smile. "But you're not going to do that, because you're a really nice person. I can tell that too."

Aina frowned, wondering why her cheeks suddenly felt very warm. "Well, okay, I won't. But if they laugh at you, I'll still get really, really mad."

"Okay." An expression of determination finally came to his eyes. "I'll go and try, since you say so."

He raised his hand. When Teacher Pierre called him, he stood up. "When you light a candle, the heat turns the wax into vapor, or gas," he said. "And when you blow the candle out, the wax vapor remains in the air, so when you place the flame near it you ignite the wax vapor and it re-lights the candle wick."

"Oh my gosh, that's very, very good!" Teacher Marie said, clapping her hands. "Wow. That's amazing. What's your name?"

The boy hesitated, and said, "Makisi—" he stopped, then continued again. "Mak-mak."

The other boy beside Aina had begun to say "Ner—", but he promptly shut up when he saw the look on her face. Mak-mak flashed her a brief smile of gratitude, before sitting back down again. His ears were very, very pink.

"What's your full name?" Aina asked. "You stopped saying it earlier. Why?"

"My full name is Makisig," the boy admitted with a sheepish smile. "But the kids at school tell me I'm anything but that. Apparently in Tagalog it means handsome and strong-looking. I'm not any of those things."

"Well, you were really cool back there," Aina said. She held out her hand. "I'm Aina—Aileen Katrina, actually, but just Aina is fine. Anyway, don't worry about the camp, okay? I won't let anyone say anything bad about you."

His ears were now a very deep shade of red. "Thanks," he said. He shook her hand shyly, but he finally looked up and smiled at her.

***

The young man sitting before her in the café now was nothing like that little boy.