Foot and Fire

             Who can still recall the small sour-sweet pitted fruit that has the taste and texture of starfruit or  balimbing?   This one almost slipped my mind if not for the local expression (among Hiligaynon-speaking in the Philippines), " daw bangkiling ang imo balhas" which translates to "your sweat looks like sour gooseberry."  Since we have a local word for it, I believe " bangkiling " is a native fruit here in the Visayas. When I was a child, I ate it plain or with salt. Its taste just tickled the tip of my tongue as I was trying hard to recall its local name. Photos below are grabbed from the web. Ownership reverts to respective owners.

Anna. She lifted her coffee cup, swayed her pinkie away from it, made a sound with her lips. She lifted her gaze, and she saw him looking at her. She saw the most painful thing: He is turned off by her physical being. Vronsky. She lifted her hand, made a sound with her lips, she extended the little finger. Fancy habits that he found charming in her then. In fact, he still does. Notwithstanding her jealousy, her fears, he still loves her. She thinks he no longer does. That's her tragedy.