This isn’t travel-related. Relatively, this is without doubt one of the quick tales I printed years earlier than I began running a blog. It was first printed in The Philippines Free Press in 2001 and was later included within the anthology The Likhaan E-book of Poetry and Fiction 2001 (an anthology of finest quick tales and poetry for that yr). Subsequently, this quick story has been included in a number of highschool textbooks everywhere in the Philippines.
My inspiration for it is a story instructed to us by our father, Bernardo Songkit Taboclaon, who beloved to entertain us with tales from his childhood in Bukidnon. Some phrases additionally got here from my grandmother, Dominica Lovable Gujilde (whose household got here from Bohol). For instance, she would all the time check with the supernatural creatures as “not like ours.” I grew up listening to that.
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COME right here, mga apo. You need me to let you know a narrative? Then you will need to come nearer, and sit at my ft. Don’t interrupt me, as my reminiscence is as fleeting because the summer time breeze, and it’s possible you’ll discover that an interrupted story is worse than no story in any respect.
I had been telling you warfare tales earlier than, of issues that occurred to your father and to your father’s father, who was my brother. Now, what I’m going to let you know is a bit of totally different, however one thing that you’ll hopefully bear in mind once you discover the necessity for this reminiscence.
I used to be the third son of Francisco, a city corridor clerk, and Carmencita, a housewife, in a small city known as Canda, someplace south in Bukidnon. It’s removed from right here, very far. To go there, it’s a must to journey by ship or airplane, and by bus for greater than twelve hours.
We lived in a small home, made smaller by the actual fact that there have been three sons, all not far aside in age. Fernando was the oldest, Alejandro, your grandfather, adopted after a yr, then, me, barely a yr later as properly. After that, Nanay simply declared she wouldn’t get pregnant once more, and certainly she didn’t.
We have been boisterous as all boys are, and it was all that Nanay might do to maintain us in place. We had no family assist, and except for our three cats, 5 kittens, two canine, a flock of chickens and two pigs, we solely had Apo, Nanay’s father.
Apo was eighty-four, however he was nonetheless spry and full of life. He would get up early each morning, rouse us away from bed, nag us to do our chores—scrubbing the ground, watering the vegetation, feeding the animals, amongst different issues—and would then sit within the verandah the entire day, puffing on a rolled betel leaf, spitting out the purple goo right into a small can beside him.
Typically, I might sit with Apo and he would inform me stuff in regards to the warfare and the occasions that his household needed to depart their house in the midst of the evening, because the shelling and the bombing began of their city.
There have been occasions, as properly, when Apo talked in regards to the “not-like-ours,” his time period for the supernatural. He had seen a kapre, he stated, he had additionally been pleasant with a dwende, and had witnessed a manananggal flapping its wings.
I spent a lot time with Apo that my brothers picked on me always, calling me a sissy. That was their favourite taunt, for they knew I hated to be known as that.
Was it my fault then that generally I favored Apo’s firm higher than theirs? I used to be no wimp—I performed their video games and excelled at some. I used to be one of the best when it got here to taking part in with marbles and no person might catch me once we have been taking part in tag, however I didn’t like searching which was certainly one of their favourite pastimes. I beloved birds, and I hated to see them damage. I cried as soon as once I noticed Fernando hit a maya within the chest, the poor chook falling from a department—merely shocked or useless, I didn’t know. I ran away earlier than they might see my tears.
However—I allow them to be. I frightened that they’d tease me much more if I chided them about hurting birds. I refused to go searching with them—in spite of everything, I used to be nonetheless the undisputed champion and had the largest marble assortment on the town.
In the future, when Fernando was fourteen, Alejandro 13, and I, twelve, Tatay got here house with dangerous information. The physique of Budok, a farmer from one other barangay, was discovered that morning. It was mangled past recognition, and solely the guitar embossed together with his identify, mendacity only a few ft away, and his garments, recognized him. A younger boy who was in search of his canine discovered the animal sniffing the physique behind a bamboo clump not removed from city.
In line with Tatay, it was the second such homicide in two months, however that they had not frightened earlier than as a result of the primary sufferer was a stranger and the homicide had taken place in Antil, a city a day’s stroll away.
What was queer, Tatay stated, was that somebody pulled out Budok’s (and the stranger’s) inner organs. In line with the physician, neither a bolo nor a knife was used for the crime, which didn’t make sense in any respect for that will imply that the individual used his arms, and the way might a pair of arms do the injury it did?
Apo was at his ordinary place within the verandah, listening to Tatay, however listening to that the assassin used his arms, he stood up and got here nearer to us.
“He used his arms, eh?” he stated, sitting subsequent to Tatay within the sala.
“That’s proper, Tay,” my father answered, holding Nanay’s arms. “However the physician remains to be inspecting the physique and speaking to the coroner from Antil. He’ll have a full report quickly.”
“Is it Doc Morales?” When my father nodded, Apo shocked us all when he stood up and went outdoors. “I’m going to see him.”
When Apo got here again late that evening, he was unusually silent. He didn’t eat supper with us, and simply stayed in his room. We heard him rummaging in his kaban a couple of times, after which all was quiet.
“What’s he doing?” Alejandro requested.
No one answered. It was a solemn dinner, with Tatay and Nanay silent, considering, maybe of the homicide, and Apo not there to chastise us for not doing our chores properly.
“Perhaps he’s smoking once more, arranging his betel rolls in that picket chest of his,” stated Fernando who didn’t suppose a lot of Apo.
Earlier than I might consider a rejoinder, Apo got here out of his room. In his hand was a protracted bronze dagger, simply a foot in size, and a chunk of material. He sat at his ordinary place within the desk and polished the blade, oblivious to the 5 pairs of eyes looking at him in astonishment.
“Tay, what’s that?” Nanay requested, not daring to consider that her beloved, normally innocent father was now holding a deadly weapon.
“That’s a pleasant piece of labor. I don’t see many bronze daggers these days,” Tatay stated, admiring the thickness and the sheen of the metallic. “What are you going to do with it, Tay?”
Apo put down the blade and confronted all of us, now not the blabbering, betel-smoking previous fogy, however a robust, clever man about to impart knowledge to his brethren.
“We’re not coping with one thing extraordinary right here,” he stated.
“The place?” Fernando interrupted. Tatay shushed him and gestured for Apo to proceed.
“I’ve been to Doc Morales. The coroner’s report from Antil arrived already, and his findings matched that of Doc Morales’s: it was carried out by a girl,” at this, he held up a hand as all of us tried to ask him on the similar time how the docs knew. “And personally, I do know who did it.” At this level, he paused dramatically, and when he spoke, it was barely a whisper. “It was carried out by the not-like-ours.”
No one spoke. Not even Fernando whose credulity, I used to be positive, was already stretched to its restrict. I feel it was as a result of Apo sounded actually ominous. It was a aid then to listen to Tatay ask Apo how they arrived on the conclusion, and what sort of creature did Apo suppose the wrongdoer was.
To my shock, Apo turned to me. “You bear in mind the tales I instructed you, Ton?”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. However which?”
“In regards to the manlalayug,” he stated, and I nodded once more, questioning what the connection was.
“You see,” Apo continued, “The opposite day, I used to be simply telling Tonyo a few creature known as the manlalayug, and that’s why I acquired suspicious once I heard you describe the physique. It occurred to me that I’ve seen that sort of homicide earlier than so I went to the physician’s to see if we might discover strands of a girl’s hair and items of damaged nail to show my hunch.”
“However given that you simply do discover these gadgets which you say you probably did, how might you conclude that it was the manlalayug for positive?” Tatay requested. He was attempting to nonetheless Nanay’s arms which have been nervously wringing the tablecloth off the eating desk.
Apo leaned into Tatay’s face. “You realize Budok?” Tatay nodded. “He’s younger, isn’t he? And robust?” Tatay nodded once more. “How, then, can a girl claw his face and pull out his inner organs together with her personal arms? How are you going to clarify that?”
“However she could have used a blunt instrument like a spoon! Or she will not be alone, or, or…” Tatay trailed off in mid-sentence when he noticed Apo’s face.
Apo was shaking his head, and he seemed unhappy, and never a bit of afraid. “No one believes in them anymore,” he whispered. “And it will likely be our deaths…”
“Wait, Tay, inform us, please. What’s a manlalayug? We actually don’t know.”
Apo checked out every of us within the eye, then turned his again. When he spoke, his voice was very low (as if he was afraid of being heard) and all of us needed to lean ahead to catch his phrases.
“Once I was just a bit older than Fernando right here,” he stated, “a manlalayug got here to our city. She managed to kill 5 males inside 5 months earlier than one lastly succeeded in stopping her.
“A manlalayug is a creature that possesses particular powers. As soon as she is searching, killing her turns into a problem, for she transforms into a really lovely lady who will definitely use her appreciable attraction to weaken a person’s will.
“The manlalayug prowls at evening, and hunts for males who’re alone. As soon as a person is totally enraptured by her, she is going to wrestle him to the bottom, for she has extraordinary power, and she is going to eat his inner organs.
“And that’s not solely her energy. She will even idiot your thoughts. It was stated that there have been males who didn’t come beneath her spell however nonetheless died as a result of once they met nose to nose, they simply stabbed her, the lady they have been going through, not figuring out that it was simply her picture. The actual her was behind them.”
“However how are you going to kill her then?” Alejandro interrupted.
“Stab backwards,” I stated, earlier than Apo might converse. “For even when you don’t see her actual physique, it’s there, behind you.”
Apo checked out me, approvingly, I believed. “Sure, Tonyo is true. You must stab backwards. If it’s the proper metallic, like this bronze blade, as soon as is sufficient. Then it is best to run, and run for all you’re price, for even a dying manlalayug can curse you together with her final breath. And that would be the finish of you.”
No one spoke, and the air was filled with concern and marvel, I believed, for the extent of Apo’s data that we had solely seen at this second.
“However who was the person that killed the manlalayug in your city? And also you didn’t inform me about this earlier than, Tay,” Nanay was frowning, however she has let go of the tablecloth, and was now absently flattening it.
Apo sighed and seemed on the dagger, turning it this manner and that. He didn’t converse for some time, and all of us thought he wasn’t going to reply Nanay when he lastly spoke.
“I didn’t let you know as a result of there was no motive to. I by no means thought this could occur once more,” he stated. He checked out Nanay. “The person who killed her was my father, your grandfather, who I instructed you died of malaria once I was fifteen.”
It appeared that my great-grandfather managed certainly, to wound the manlalayug. Sadly, he didn’t depart till the lady appeared useless. “She cursed him,” Apo stated, “telling him that he’ll die earlier than the month was to finish.”
Our great-lolo died inside per week, however not earlier than telling his fifteen-year-old son the whole lot that he knew in regards to the monster he bested. He gave him the dagger to maintain, as properly, reminding him that he ought to observe his father’s footsteps ought to the identical factor occur once more. However he was already too previous, too previous. Apo was shaking his head, wanting on the weapon in his arms wistfully.
“That’s why I took out this dagger, in case somebody is keen to hunt the manlalayug. She gained’t be popping out till the subsequent full moon, so we now have time to arrange.”
Tatay stood up, raking his hand by means of his hair. “How can we inform the mayor, or the police, about this? They’ll snigger at us.”
“Then don’t.”
“However… we are able to’t let her kill once more, if certainly, it’s a manlalayug!”
Apo sighed. “Isko, we are able to’t let the authorities do the whole lot.”
“So what do you counsel we do? I can’t very properly do it, if that’s what you’re suggesting!” Tatay was obtrusive at Apo, and Apo was obtrusive again.
“And why not? You’re nonetheless younger and powerful…”
“Tay!” Nanay was livid. She stood up and confronted Apo. “How are you going to say that? We’ve got three youngsters! And what are the police there for?” Nanay was nearly shouting, and Tatay needed to calm her and lead her to their bed room.
Apo checked out us. “Generally we now have to be courageous, my boys.” Then, he, too, went to his room.
The subsequent morning, nothing was stated of the incident. Apo didn’t speak in regards to the manlalayug, and neither did my dad and mom. However there was a rigidity within the air because the weeks handed, and the doomed evening neared.
On Thursday, the evening earlier than the total moon, Alejandro introduced up the topic whereas we have been in mattress.
“Do you suppose she’ll strike once more?” he stated.
Fernando harrumphed. “It’s simply certainly one of Apo’s tales. You wanna guess nothing will occur tomorrow?”
“How are you going to say that?” I protested. “Apo was telling the reality! You noticed his face when he was telling us about his father. How are you going to simply ignore it?”
“Technique to go, Tonyo! We didn’t know you actually believed that!” Alejandro stated. He whispered one thing to Fernando they usually laughed. Inside moments, they have been chanting, “Sissy! Sissy! Sissy!”
Eager to strike again, I muttered, “You simply don’t wish to face her. You’re simply afraid you’ll be her subsequent sufferer.”
Fernando sat up and introduced his face near mine. “So, you’re not afraid, huh? Effectively, courageous boy, why don’t you are taking Apo’s dagger and discover the manlalayug your self?”
Discover the manlalayug? What a loopy thought! She’d have boys like me for breakfast, and nonetheless have room for extra! I turned my again on Fernando and saved silent. However my brothers guessed the rationale for my silence, and resumed their chanting as soon as extra, punctuating it with hisses.
Feeling their gibes chunk, and realizing that the one method to cease their jeering was for me to comply with what they wished me to do, I nearly shouted, “Sure, sure, I’ll do it. I’ll kill her.”
The phrases had been empty, however once I stated them, I spotted that I actually needed to do it, not for my brothers nor for myself, however for my father. If I might not go, and the manlalayug claimed one other sufferer tomorrow, Tatay can be pressured to hunt her himself, regardless of what Nanay needed to say as a result of he would really feel obliged.
I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—think about what would occur if he failed.
Alejandro touched my arm, instantly contrite. “We didn’t actually imply that, Ton. We have been simply teasing.”
I turned to Alejandro, and instructed him, firmly, I hoped, “No, I’ll go. In any other case, Tatay has to, and you understand Nanay is already mad at Apo for saying he has to do it.”
My brothers realized then what I had already understood, they usually, too, have been silent. Fernando slung his arm round my shoulders and stated, actual softly, “Are you positive you are able to do it, Ton?”
I checked out him within the eyes and stated, simply as softly, “Sure.”
The subsequent day, my brothers have been unusually quiet, considering maybe of what I had to do this evening. When Apo went to his ordinary place within the verandah, they helped me search for the bronze dagger in Apo’s bed room. We discovered it on high of his garments within the kaban, and we hid it in my closet.
No one was in a position to eat dinner, and although my dad and mom have been significantly puzzled for my brothers and I have been normally voracious eaters it doesn’t matter what the meals was. They didn’t remark, misplaced in their very own ideas as properly.
We stated good evening, and my brothers and I laid down on the mat, all tense and ready for the time that I might safely depart the home. After we have been positive that our dad and mom and Apo have been asleep, we rose. I took out the dagger from the closet and tucked it into the waistband of my pants.
“Higher carry it,” Fernando whispered. “So you’re prepared anytime.”
Alejandro hugged me. I patted his again, saying I might be again earlier than they knew it. I used to be down the steps already when Fernando tried to tug me again inside the home. “Ton, don’t do it. Please! You’ll get your self killed.”
I pulled out of his grasp and stated, “I gained’t. I’ll take care.”
Then I ran, bumped into the broad streets, and onto the open fields that lay between us and the city correct.
I reached the city in ten minutes. Drained by my run, I plopped down on a bench within the plaza considering my subsequent motion. Ought to I spend the entire evening there? The bench was chilly, and after my run, the air was chilly. I solely had a skinny T-shirt, and a pair of quick pants (good for working, I believed then), and although I used to be accustomed to chilly climate, the air that evening was particularly biting. I used to be shivering inside minutes.
My coronary heart was beating quickly. I gave the impression to be the one one awake in the entire city, and I used to be sitting in the midst of the plaza with solely the bronze dagger to consolation me.
I seemed round and the whole lot was in shades of grey. Some bats screeched and some crickets chirped however, in any other case, I used to be alone, and I might hear noises, noises that my nocturnal companions didn’t make. I used to be listening to the noises of the evening, and it appeared to come back from all over the place, but from nowhere.
I instantly had a reputation for what I felt—concern. And it was concern that slowly stuffed my complete being.
Lastly, I couldn’t take it anymore—the bats, the chilly, the grey shapes that gave the impression to be transferring towards me, and the utter stillness of the whole lot round me. I stood up and commenced to run again house, berating myself for the foolishness of my pleasure, and cursing my brothers for forcing me to show my masculinity.
On my manner again, passing by the primary rice discipline, I spotted that nothing stirred. I slowed all the way down to a stroll and listened. Not a single stalk of rice moved, not a single cricket chirped. I bear in mind considering that it was too calm, too nonetheless.
I used to be midway by means of the second rice discipline once I detected motion forward of me. I hoped to God that it was solely certainly one of my brothers, or our neighbor Pilo the drunkard, or anyone besides the one I believed it could be.
I used to be already sweating profusely, although my palms have been chilly. My grip on the dagger slipped various occasions, and I needed to grope for it on the bottom since I didn’t wish to take my eyes off from what is perhaps in entrance of me.
I instantly realized that the whole lot was turning into very, very actual. My brothers and their dare have been one million years away. This was actuality—me holding a chilly piece of metallic, in the midst of nowhere, shivering due to the chilly and due to one thing transferring in entrance of me that I couldn’t see. This was my actuality, and I used to be deathly afraid.
I thought-about what to do—return to the city and wake somebody as much as accompany me again house, or go forward?
I used to be standing indecisively when the matter was taken from my arms. I noticed her, only a few steps in entrance of me, showing fairly instantly—all lady, all flesh. Her actions have been sleek, and her hair was very, very lengthy, transferring with a lifetime of its personal, trailing after her like a black luminescent robe. And he or she was taking a look at me, and she or he appeared to see deep into my soul.
I knew at that second that it was her—the manlalayug I had been ready for and desirous to hunt. However figuring out that it was her didn’t cease my rising curiosity for her. I let her get nearer, fascinated by the way in which she walked. She was gliding, and her ft didn’t contact the bottom, of that I might’ve sworn.
When she was close to sufficient to the touch me, she reached out her hand and, blindly, I took it. It was tender, so tender, and I might odor her, the perfume of the wind and the ocean. Slowly, she pulled me in opposition to her tender physique.
I used to be misplaced. I might really feel it. I used to be going to return her embrace when my dagger nicked me, just a bit, within the arm and I woke as if from a dream, and noticed what was going through me.
With out considering, I stabbed her within the chest, exhausting, bringing down the bronze weapon into her lovely bosom with my two arms. To my shock, my blade handed by means of her physique into skinny air, and I nearly stumbled. What the…?
Then I remembered, and in my thoughts Apo was screaming, She’s behind you! She’s behind you! Stab backwards!
Gripping the metallic with all of the power my 12-year-old physique might muster, I drove the dagger backwards, not shocked this time, once I encountered agency flesh, which shortly yielded and buried my blade to the hilt.
The picture in entrance of me vanished, and once I circled, there she was, the manlalayug, writhing with ache, clutching her abdomen, as she tried to quell the flowing of her blood. In seconds, her immaculate robe turned crimson.
I ran and by no means seemed again.
I discovered my brothers awake and ready for me by the door. They instructed me they have been about to get up my dad and mom and inform them what occurred. Then they noticed my bloody arm and arms, and the blade nonetheless dripping with the manlalayug’s blood. Fernando ran to our dad and mom’ bed room and banged for all he was price, they usually got here out, Apo got here out, they usually noticed what I had carried out.
All of us went again to the place the place I fought the manlalayug, every of us bringing a weapon however the manlalayug was now not there. All that remained was a puddle of blood, darkish and ominous within the moonlight.
The subsequent morning, the entire city looked for a wounded lady, and even the native officers have been persuaded to affix the hunt as soon as we instructed them what occurred. However we didn’t discover her. Nor was any lady reported to have died within the subsequent few days.
However the killings stopped after that. And to my brothers, and even to the opposite youngsters, I used to be now not Tonyo the Wimp. In a single day, I had change into Tonyo the Courageous—and that was the identify I turned identified for, for the remainder of my life.
YES, sure, that was a pleasant story, my dears, a pleasant story. However there aren’t any extra tales like that. Tomorrow, I’ll let you know as an alternative about how the river Polangi got here to be. It, too, is a pleasant story.
Now, you go on up, it’s already late. Lolo Tonyo is drained, and also you all must go to highschool tomorrow. Good evening, good evening.
©2001 by Maria Aleah G. Taboclaon
