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.”

note of Christina’s kind

at the round table and ate harmoniously while enjoying the sea breeze.

a walk,” said Christina after

at Christina’s leg

to discuss with him in private. “It’ll be fine. We won’t be so far out.” Miriam would grow suspicious if they were to wander off too much. Miriam

his mother prompting him, too, Vito could only accompany Christina on her walk outside

struggled to walk and could only proceed slowly with the help of a cane. Meanwhile, Vito

other and arrived at

and sky

seeing Vito remain standing,

unease written in his eyes, Vito pursed his

a girl alone. He simply didn’t know what

not to pressure him. “It’s so pretty out here. I’ve never

the atmosphere between them eased slowly,

lowered her gaze. “I miss home. I don’t even

too. “Give me a few days to

Christina concluded that Miriam and Vito weren’t lying about the boat

didn’t want to wait any longer.

other boat we can

knew from the start that there weren’t many motorboats on the island; most boats here could only

way she could get home using the latter.

the young man was usually in charge of selling the fish

was why Christina remained stuck on this island for so

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