*First sentence from "That Summer" by Sarah Dessen
It's funny how one summer can change everything. But then again, hadn't Ellie read enough books to know that? In The Chronicles of Narnia, a few hours could mean a decade. In Laguna, a summer meant a lifetime.
Ellie lived in Paete her whole life. The farthest she had ever gone was Pagsanjan. Tito Entong took her and her older brother Jackson through the rapids down to the famous waterfalls. They rode in a narrow wooden canoe, with Tito Entong pushing them away from the rocks.
But Tito passed away a few months after that. And now, Jackson was miles away, working at some call center in Manila. Ellie had stopped her schooling to work at a small craft shop. She and her brother had to grow up that summer. Actually, most of the children did after the huge fire that burned down almost the entire barangay early in March. The rest of the summer was spent recovering their possessions, looking for lodging among relatives (who could barely afford to house their own families), and looking for extra income to tide them over. Jackson and Ellie immediately decided that they needed to help their parents with some of the expenses.
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