Summary: Dead Stars by Paz Marquez-Benitez

Alfredo Salazar was betrothed to Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years. The start of their
relationship was relatively warm, with Alfredo wooing Esperanza like a man in dire
lovesickness. But as the years went by, the warm loves fire slowly flickered. And it was
because of Julia Salas.

She was charming and gleeful. He shared moments of light but sometimes deep
conversations with her when the lawyer Alfredo visited Julias brother-in-law, who was a
judge. He always went there with his father and since it was his father who needed to talk to
the judge, he was always left to Julias company. He never told her he was engaged. At first
he didnt notice that a change in his heart was taking form. But then he started keeping
details of his activities to his fiance and then the guilty feeling crept in. When he found out
that Julia was about to head back to her distant hometown, he felt blue and frightened.

He met her in church after the Holy Thursday procession, although he knew that Esperanza
was already waiting for him. He approached her and she conversed with him with an
expression that told him she finally knew. She congratulated him and said she will be at his
wedding. Then they parted.

When he visited Esperanza in her house, he overheard her talking to another woman about
infidelity and immorality, to which he reasoned in favor of the condemned. The statement
caused an intense fury to Esperanza and she told him that she knew. She dared Alfredo to
abandon her, along with morality and reason and her dignity as a woman as well as her
image before the society all for the sake of his being fair to himself.

Eventually the wedding took place. And after several years, Alfredo was sent to a distant
village due to a legal assignment. It bothered him so much because it was near Julias
hometown. But he still found himself making his way to her house despite of himself. And
he found her there, just as how and where he expected her to be. She never married. And
he wondered how life would be if he ended up with her. But all was too late and he could
never bring things back. He also noticed that Julia lost something, albeit the fact that he
didnt know what that is youth, love, luster? And when he looked at her he doubted if she
ever cared for him, if he has mistaken the past light in her eyes as manifestations of a
possible romance. But now theyre all gone. And so it was indeed all done.