“I do not like spying on them,” I said. “Nanay would spank me if she knew I did that.”
“They will not know,” said Noli. “We will be very quiet.”
My curiosity was stronger than my fear of being spanked. We walked quietly back to my house and hid under the stairs. We could hear the sound of their voices but could not make out the words. We thought we could hear better under our abuhan in the kitchen. When we could not, we went around to the opposite side of the house under our sala but still could not make out their conversation. We could hear our mothers’ voices but could not make out the words.
“I am not doing this anymore. We are not getting anywhere with it,” I said, stricken with conscience.
“Let us smoke cigarettes,” suggested Rhuel.
“We don’t have money to buy cigarettes,” said N
