after the truck, after all. Jose gave his brother a weak smile and rustled his hair before informing him that there was food on the table and to eat quick before their father ate it all. Annie cooed softly in her makeshift bed as Lucas placed a pot of carabao milk to boil and cool before bottling it up. Lucas called for his mother but the silence merely returned his grief. The force of habit still had not left him. Three months of struggle had passed but Lucas still took great care to bottle- feed his mother’s killer. A bundle of sugarcane lay on the bed and Lucas chopped them up to chew on — the only sweetness he would know for a while. 30