Let Me Stay The Night

Night had fallen by the time Vito returned from the village chief’s house.

Standing at the door, Miriam pulled him into the woods outside the courtyard.

“How did it go at the village chief’s house?” she asked after making sure Christina wouldn’t be able to hear them.

Vito recounted everything truthfully. The village chief’s roof was severely damaged, but with everyone’s help, all the broken pieces had been cleared out. What remained was for the village chief to patch his roof with some new tiles.

Yet, Miriam didn’t care about that. Thinking about how Christina had asked about the village chief’s phone today, she fell silent for a moment before asking. “What happened to his phone?”

“It’s broken,” Vito answered.

A smile formed on Miriam’s face. Everything was going exactly as she had planned. “Let’s go. It’s time for dinner.”

While seated, Christina noticed the two return together.

“Vito,” she called out to him softly.

Hearing the woman call his name, Vito scratched the back of his head awkwardly, not knowing where to look.

Having interacted with him for the past few days, Christina was no longer surprised by his demeanor. Miriam, on the other hand, gave him a light slap on the head in frustration.

Then, Vito swiftly began scooping out the food from the pot.

“You must be starving.” Miriam served Christina’s portion of food on a plate.

The latter smiled and shook her head. “Not at all. I haven’t done a lot today, so I didn’t use much en she replied while pushing the plate toward Vito instead.

“You must be hungry, Vito. You were busy helping out at the village chief’s place all day.”

took note of Christina’s kind gesture, feeling more

that, the three of them sat at the round table and

going out for a walk,” said Christina after dinner. “Could you come with me,

say no, but he glanced at Christina’s leg out of concern.

out.” Miriam would grow suspicious if they were to wander off too much.

him, too, Vito could only accompany Christina on her

proceed slowly with the help of a cane. Meanwhile, Vito stayed by

to each other and arrived at

the vast sea and

and sat on it. Then, seeing Vito remain standing, she invited him

Vito pursed his lips. “I-It’s fine.”

this was his first time talking to a girl alone. He simply didn’t know what to do.

not to pressure him. “It’s so pretty out here. I’ve never seen a night sky as lovely as this,” she exclaimed, gazing out into the distance.

between them eased slowly,

lowered her gaze. “I miss home. I don’t even know how my family is

a few days to fix the boat, and

concluded that Miriam and Vito weren’t

to

there no other boat we can take?” Christina glanced

from the start that there weren’t many motorboats on the

no way she could get home using the latter.

had been left behind by his father, and the young man was usually in charge of selling the fish they caught with it.

the boat had malfunctioned, and that was why Christina remained

eyes, Vito didn’t know what to say. He bit his lower lip and kept mum as he remembered