This isn’t travel-related. Fairly, this is without doubt one of the brief tales I revealed years earlier than I began running a blog. It was first revealed 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 greatest brief tales and poetry for that yr). Subsequently, this brief story has been included in a number of highschool textbooks everywhere in the Philippines.
My inspiration for it is a story informed 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 at all times 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 need to come nearer, and sit at my ft. Don’t interrupt me, as my reminiscence is as fleeting because the summer season breeze, and you could discover that an interrupted story is worse than no story in any respect.
I had been telling you conflict 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 little bit completely different, however one thing that you’ll hopefully keep in mind whenever 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 important to journey by ship or airplane, and by bus for greater than twelve hours.
We lived in a small home, made smaller by the very 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 had been boisterous as all boys are, and it was all that Nanay may do to maintain us in place. We had no family assist, and apart from 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 energetic. 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 concerning the conflict and the occasions that his household needed to depart their house in the course of the night time, because the shelling and the bombing began of their city.
There have been occasions, as properly, when Apo talked concerning the “not-like-ours,” his time period for the supernatural. He had seen a kapre, he mentioned, 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 consistently, 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 enjoying with marbles and no person may catch me once we had been enjoying tag, however I didn’t like looking which was considered one of their favourite pastimes. I beloved birds, and I hated to see them damage. I cried as soon as after I noticed Fernando hit a maya within the chest, the poor fowl falling from a department—merely surprised or useless, I didn’t know. I ran away earlier than they might see my tears.
However—I allow them to be. I apprehensive that they might tease me much more if I chided them about hurting birds. I refused to go looking with them—in spite of everything, I used to be nonetheless the undisputed champion and had the most important marble assortment on the town.
Someday, 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 along with his title, 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.
Based on Tatay, it was the second such homicide in two months, however they’d not apprehensive 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 mentioned, was that somebody pulled out Budok’s (and the stranger’s) inner organs. Based on the physician, neither a bolo nor a knife was used for the crime, which didn’t make sense in any respect for that might imply that the individual used his palms, and the way may a pair of palms do the injury it did?
Apo was at his common place within the verandah, listening to Tatay, however listening to that the assassin used his palms, he stood up and got here nearer to us.
“He used his palms, eh?” he mentioned, sitting subsequent to Tatay within the sala.
“That’s proper, Tay,” my father answered, holding Nanay’s palms. “However the physician continues 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 stunned us all when he stood up and went outdoors. “I’m going to see him.”
When Apo got here again late that night time, 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 few times, after which all was quiet.
“What’s he doing?” Alejandro requested.
No person answered. It was a solemn dinner, with Tatay and Nanay silent, pondering, 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,” mentioned Fernando who didn’t assume a lot of Apo.
Earlier than I may 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 bit of material. He sat at his common place within the desk and polished the blade, oblivious to the 5 pairs of eyes watching him in astonishment.
“Tay, what’s that?” Nanay requested, not daring to imagine 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 mentioned, admiring the thickness and the sheen of the steel. “What are you going to do with it, Tay?”
Apo put down the blade and confronted all of us, not the blabbering, betel-smoking previous fogy, however a robust, sensible man about to impart knowledge to his brethren.
“We aren’t coping with one thing strange right here,” he mentioned.
“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 accomplished by a girl,” at this, he held up a hand as all of us tried to ask him on the identical time how the medical doctors 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 accomplished by the not-like-ours.”
No person 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 reduction then to listen to Tatay ask Apo how they arrived on the conclusion, and what sort of creature did Apo assume the offender was.
To my shock, Apo turned to me. “You keep in mind the tales I informed you, Ton?”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. However which?”
“Concerning the manlalayug,” he mentioned, 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 bought suspicious after 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 may discover strands of a girl’s hair and items of damaged nail to show my hunch.”
“However given that you just do discover these gadgets which you say you probably did, how may you conclude that it was the manlalayug for positive?” Tatay requested. He was making an attempt to nonetheless Nanay’s palms which had 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 powerful?” Tatay nodded once more. “How, then, can a girl claw his face and pull out his inner organs along with her personal palms? How will you clarify that?”
“However she might have used a blunt instrument like a spoon! Or she might 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 little bit afraid. “No person 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.
“After I was just a bit older than Fernando right here,” he mentioned, “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 looking, killing her turns into a problem, for she transforms into a really lovely girl who will definitely use her appreciable appeal to weaken a person’s will.
“The manlalayug prowls at night time, and hunts for males who’re alone. As soon as a person is totally enraptured by her, she’s going to wrestle him to the bottom, for she has extraordinary energy, and she’s going to eat his inner organs.
“And that isn’t solely her energy. She may also idiot your thoughts. It was mentioned that there have been males who didn’t come beneath her spell however nonetheless died as a result of after they met head to head, they only stabbed her, the lady they had been going through, not figuring out that it was simply her picture. The true her was behind them.”
“However how are you going to kill her then?” Alejandro interrupted.
“Stab backwards,” I mentioned, earlier than Apo may communicate. “For even for those who don’t see her actual physique, it’s there, behind you.”
Apo checked out me, approvingly, I believed. “Sure, Tonyo is true. It is best to stab backwards. If it’s the proper steel, like this bronze blade, as soon as is sufficient. Then you must run, and run for all you’re price, for even a dying manlalayug can curse you along with her final breath. And that would be the finish of you.”
No person spoke, and the air was filled with concern and surprise, I believed, for the extent of Apo’s information 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 fashion and that. He didn’t communicate 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 is able to occur once more,” he mentioned. He checked out Nanay. “The person who killed her was my father, your grandfather, who I informed you died of malaria after 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 mentioned, “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 every little thing that he knew concerning the monster he bested. He gave him the dagger to maintain, as properly, reminding him that he ought to comply with 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, trying on the weapon in his palms wistfully.
“That’s why I took out this dagger, in case somebody is prepared to hunt the manlalayug. She gained’t be popping out till the subsequent full moon, so we now have time to organize.”
Tatay stood up, raking his hand by means of his hair. “How can we inform the mayor, or the police, about this? They’ll chuckle at us.”
“Then don’t.”
“However… we will’t let her kill once more, if certainly, it’s a manlalayug!”
Apo sighed. “Isko, we will’t let the authorities do every little thing.”
“So what do you recommend we do? I can’t very properly do it, if that’s what you’re suggesting!” Tatay was evident at Apo, and Apo was evident again.
“And why not? You’re nonetheless younger and robust…”
“Tay!” Nanay was livid. She stood up and confronted Apo. “How will you say that? We’ve three kids! 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 mentioned of the incident. Apo didn’t discuss concerning the manlalayug, and neither did my dad and mom. However there was a stress within the air because the weeks handed, and the doomed night time neared.
On Thursday, the night time earlier than the complete moon, Alejandro introduced up the topic whereas we had been in mattress.
“Do you assume she’ll strike once more?” he mentioned.
Fernando harrumphed. “It’s simply considered one of Apo’s tales. You wanna guess nothing will occur tomorrow?”
“How will you say that?” I protested. “Apo was telling the reality! You noticed his face when he was telling us about his father. How will you simply ignore it?”
“Approach to go, Tonyo! We didn’t know you actually believed that!” Alejandro mentioned. He whispered one thing to Fernando and so they laughed. Inside moments, they had been chanting, “Sissy! Sissy! Sissy!”
Desirous 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? Properly, courageous boy, why don’t you are taking Apo’s dagger and discover the manlalayug your self?”
Discover the manlalayug? What a loopy concept! She’d have boys like me for breakfast, and nonetheless have room for extra! I turned my again on Fernando and stored 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 technique to cease their jeering was for me to conform to what they needed me to do, I nearly shouted, “Sure, sure, I’ll do it. I’ll kill her.”
The phrases had been empty, however after I mentioned 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 compelled 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 had been simply teasing.”
I turned to Alejandro, and informed 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, and so they, too, had been silent. Fernando slung his arm round my shoulders and mentioned, actual softly, “Are you positive you are able to do it, Ton?”
I checked out him within the eyes and mentioned, simply as softly, “Sure.”
The subsequent day, my brothers had been unusually quiet, pondering maybe of what I had to try this night time. When Apo went to his common place within the verandah, they helped me search for the bronze dagger in Apo’s bed room. We discovered it on prime of his garments within the kaban, and we hid it in my closet.
No person was in a position to eat dinner, and although my dad and mom had been enormously puzzled for my brothers and I had 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 mentioned good night time, and my brothers and I laid down on the mat, all tense and ready for the time that I may safely depart the home. Once we had been positive that our dad and mom and Apo had 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 mentioned, “I gained’t. I’ll take care.”
Then I ran, bumped into the huge 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 night time there? The bench was chilly, and after my run, the air was chilly. I solely had a skinny T-shirt, and a pair of brief pants (good for operating, I believed then), and although I used to be accustomed to chilly climate, the air that night time was particularly biting. I used to be shivering inside minutes.
My coronary heart was beating quickly. I appeared to be the one one awake in the entire city, and I used to be sitting in the course of the plaza with solely the bronze dagger to consolation me.
I seemed round and every little thing was in shades of grey. Some bats screeched and some crickets chirped however, in any other case, I used to be alone, and I may hear noises, noises that my nocturnal companions didn’t make. I used to be listening to the noises of the night time, and it appeared to come back from in all places, but from nowhere.
I instantly had a reputation for what I felt—concern. And it was concern that slowly crammed my entire being.
Lastly, I couldn’t take it anymore—the bats, the chilly, the grey shapes that appeared to be shifting towards me, and the utter stillness of every little thing 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 subject, 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 keep in mind pondering that it was too calm, too nonetheless.
I used to be midway by means of the second rice subject after I detected motion forward of me. I hoped to God that it was solely considered 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 had been chilly. My grip on the dagger slipped quite a lot of occasions, and I needed to grope for it on the bottom since I didn’t wish to take my eyes off from what is likely to be in entrance of me.
I instantly realized that every little thing was changing into very, very actual. My brothers and their dare had been 1,000,000 years away. This was actuality—me holding a chilly piece of steel, in the course of nowhere, shivering due to the chilly and due to one thing shifting in entrance of me that I couldn’t see. This was my actuality, and I used to be deathly afraid.
I thought of 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 palms. I noticed her, only a few steps in entrance of me, showing fairly instantly—all girl, all flesh. Her actions had been sleek, and her hair was very, very lengthy, shifting with a lifetime of its personal, trailing after her like a black luminescent robe. And she or he 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 eager 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 may’ve sworn.
When she was close to sufficient to the touch me, she reached out her hand and, blindly, I took it. It was smooth, so smooth, and I may odor her, the perfume of the wind and the ocean. Slowly, she pulled me towards her smooth physique.
I used to be misplaced. I may 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 pondering, I stabbed her within the chest, arduous, bringing down the bronze weapon into her lovely bosom with my two palms. 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 steel with all of the energy my 12-year-old physique may muster, I drove the dagger backwards, not stunned this time, after I encountered agency flesh, which shortly yielded and buried my blade to the hilt.
The picture in entrance of me vanished, and after 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 informed me they had been about to get up my dad and mom and inform them what occurred. Then they noticed my bloody arm and palms, 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, and so they got here out, Apo got here out, and so they noticed what I had accomplished.
All of us went again to the place the place I fought the manlalayug, every of us bringing a weapon however the manlalayug was 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 girl, and even the native officers had been persuaded to affix the hunt as soon as we informed them what occurred. However we didn’t discover her. Nor was any girl reported to have died within the subsequent few days.
However the killings stopped after that. And to my brothers, and even to the opposite kids, I used to be not Tonyo the Wimp. In a single day, I had turn out to be Tonyo the Courageous—and that was the title I grew to become identified for, for the remainder of my life.
YES, sure, that was a pleasant story, my dears, a pleasant story. However there are not 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 need to go to highschool tomorrow. Good night time, good night time.
©2001 by Maria Aleah G. Taboclaon
