SECOND CHANCES(A Lesbian Story)

Chapter 15

"Of course, had the girls been born a couple of days later, they would not have been an Aquarian. They would have been Piscean."

"But if there really is something in astrology, how come the twins have different personalities?"

"The Ascendant, my dear... And the Moon too. You see, they were born an hour apart. The ascendant and the Moon had changed signs by then."

Mika bit into her cheeks in an effort to prevent a giggle which may come out as rudeness. She was curious about Helena Galang's hobby and she had read magazine articles on the different signs of the zodiac. But the twins having "different moons" was by no means obvious... at least, not to her. She did not know the significance.

Vic's grandmother spent the next ten minutes enlightening her. Well, partially. Some of the impromptu lecture was so technical it went right over Mika's head. Helena made no allowances for people not knowing what a "trine" or a "conjunction" was. Still, she was such a delightful lady.

"Uhmm... Mrs. Galang, perhaps we should go in now? It is already almost one-thirty."

"Is it really? That is probably why I am hungry. But you must see the mini stream, Mika. It is really pretty..."

Mika smiled and nodded her agreement. She arrived around noon because Vic asked her to come early... to have lunch with the family. She had been greeted by Vic and the twins when she arrived in her car. Her father brought her car to Manila the last time he came over and just took the bus back to Baguio.

The Galang Family Home was quite something. It was very large, old, and very well cared for. It was a home and not merely a house... there were a lot of expensive antiques around and old portraits of the generations of the Galang Family... yet it was lived in, comfortable place , and Mika had felt at home with it as soon as she stepped foot in it.

Vic's father and grandmother gave her a very warm welcome and it was they who showed her the ground-floor rooms of the house. It was easy to see where Vic got her looks. Para silang pinagbiyak na bunga ng ama nya.

Vic's mother looks strict but is actually a very friendly woman. It was she together with the housekeepers, who had made all the arrangements for the party. The twin's grandparents obviously thought the world of them... though they were equally wrapped up in each other. They were married thirty years already... separated at one point but got reunited. They told this to Mika when showing her around their home.

Afterwards, they'd all gathered in the drawing room for pre-lunch drinks and it was then that Grannie had made her entrance. She monopolized Mika immediately and took her outside to see the vast gardens surrounding the house.

"Oh, yes, it is very pretty!" At the boundary of the land at the back of the house, there was a mini man-made stream which was moving at quite a pace. There were two weeping willows on its bank, their branches overhanging the water, and Mika stood between the trees, smiling at the lady by her side and saying what an idyllic setting this would be for a picnic on a summer afternoon.

Helena Galang smiled and nodded. She looked just as she'd looked that day she walked into the office—- except for the shopping bags she was carrying, that is. Whether it was her habit to put on her fur coat for a stroll around the garden, Mika did not know. Then again, everyone is entitled to their own eccentricities. As for the red hat... well, why not? It was a windy afternoon anyways.

"My dear, I... well... I brought you out here because to tell the truth, I wanted a private word with you."

Mika did not know why, but this came as no surprise to her. "Yes?"