This is a story that needed to be told. Up to this moment no one else has known about it. I have not told anyone. Not my closest friends. Not my wife even. But it must be told now.
It happened a long time ago. By right, this should have been forgotten, never to be heard by anyone else. Never to be discussed. But, I'm afraid I must.
I was twelve years old when this story began as the long, lazy days of summer were about to end in 1958. I was actually excited for the new school year later that June when I and the rest of the baby boomers (those born immediately after the war - WWII) were about to enter high school. What we called the summer break at the end of the school year had nothing to do with the seasonal summer as known in temperate countries. The Philippines, like all the Pacific countries that lie along and near the equator only have two seasons - dry and wet. Where I was born in one of the central islands of the Philippine archipelago, the two-month break between school years was merely dubbed summer just to be consistent with American education, upon which our school system was based. The end of a school year usually fell in the middle of April and the start of the new school year began in mid-June.
The seaside barrio of the island where I grew up was sparsely populated with no more than a couple thousand people, almost half of which were children and teenagers. So, everyone knew everyone. Except for the family that lived in a big house that stood out and a bit away from among the nipa huts and shanties. That house somehow survived the war and the Japanese occupation. It had a concrete wall and an iron gate fronting the street. The back that was facing the sea only had a picket fence and some shrubs and tall grasses. Only coconut trees and a few meters of white sand separated the back from the surf.
Typical of any beach, during low tide a good swath of what's beneath the waves during high tide would be exposed to an ankle-deep watery sand, stones and rocks encrusted with barnacles, oysters, moss and seaweed. It is during low tide when a handful of us boys would join many other locals to explore and exploit whatever was exposed by the receding sea. There were small crabs and fish caught in tidal pools but what some young kids and I did was to dig for clams that were under the sand. But we didn't just dig randomly because there was strategy and technique involved. We had long bamboo sticks, the length and rigidity of a cane with a pointy metal tip fastened to the bottom end. Beneath the wet sand or even with about an inch of water was where we would use the stick like a blind person would do when walking. We poked and probed the sand left to right, right to left, while pacing forward with our attention focused at each strike. If the stick hits an area where there is clam underneath we'd see water squirt upwards. That happens when the clam feels threatened. It rapidly forces water out through a tube-like appendage as it retracts that part of its anatomy downwards. That action helps it to burrow a bit farther down the soft, sometimes muddy sand. That's where we will dig to get the clam.
One afternoon I was by myself because none of the other boys were around. There was a scattering of people who were busy doing whatever it was they were occupied with. I too must have been preoccupied as well by going a little farther away from where we usually went, unaware until I looked towards the beach. I realized I was standing right at the back of the big house.
Just outside the fence and under a coconut tree was a young girl who I imagined was my age hunched over something on the sand. She looked up and saw me staring at her. She waved her hand for me to come over. As I got closer she picked up an injured bird from the ground. She said that maybe one of the boys from somewhere nearby had hit it with a slingshot. One wing was stretched out away from its body and I saw a bit of blood.
"What's going on out there?" said a voice coming from inside the fence. It was from a lady of about fifty or sixty years. If she was that age she was old, I thought. But her light brown skin was smooth and wrinkle free.
"We found this injured bird mama", I was surprised she said "we". She summoned us both to bring the bird over. She held it close to her face for maybe a minute or so while blowing her breath to the bird. Then she gave it to her daughter.
"It's fine. Let go and it will fly away." Sure enough, the bird flew away quickly and away. It happened so fast I was stunned to even say anything. Anyhow, she then said, looking at me, "This here is Adelina, my daughter", pointing at the girl. Then Adelina said, "She's my mother and I have two older sisters".
"You tell us your name and I will have some bread and guava jelly for you two." I said my name. "May I wash my hands from that faucet there"?, I asked.
Adelina went inside the house following her mother. Shortly after that, in about a couple of minutes, Adelina came back followed by the maid with a plate of sliced bread with a saucer of guava jelly. The maid said she'll come back with some soft drinks. I knew Adelina noticed my eyes widened at the sight of the snack as the maid set it on the small outdoor table. The plate with the bread was a thick gold rimmed white China with matching saucer filled with guava jelly and fine silver teaspoon and knife on the side. It was one unforgettable merienda for a boy used to nothing but boiled yam or banana or cold leftover rice topped with coarse brown sugar for snacks. But Adelina hardly ate at all; instead, she just watched me with an easy smile framed by strands of jet-black hair that draped along the contours of her smooth, light brown face. Actually she had a much fairer skin than most Filipinos but nonetheless a true Filipina beauty.
I bade my goodbye to Adelina as the sun was about to sink over the horizon. I remember those beautiful sunsets. "I will tell mama that you said goodbye", when I turned my face towards the backdoor of the house.
I was so excited to tell everyone at home when I got back though I skipped the part about the injured bird. My mother was not too happy. She said, "Don't ever go back there again."
"Why?" I asked back.
"We don't know those people. They are very strange and they also don't want to be part of this barrio. Do you see them come around even during fiesta?"
"But.."
My mother interrupted me, "Just don't ever go back there ever again, all right?"
I obediently heeded her admonition. The days went by fast as the new school year came. I was excited about high school but at the same time intimidated by having to compete with students who finished from the different elementary schools from around the entire city and nearby towns who will also enroll in the one big high school. Our entire sixth grade class was twenty-two students. The freshman class of the provincial public high school had twenty four sections of twenty to twenty five students each. Those who did well based on their sixth grade performance in elementary made Section One of the freshman class. Maintaining high grades to stay in Section One was what mattered most, we were told early on.
One mid afternoon I was at the school library doing some reading when from the left corner of the table I heard a voice, "Hi, you remember me?"
It was Adelina.
"You look surprised to see me". Indeed, I was. There she was wearing the high school girls' uniform of white blouse and pleated maroon skirt. I expected her to go to the one private Catholic school blocks away from the public high school, so I didn't particularly look for her within our school.
"Shall we talk outside? If the driver comes early I don't want him looking for me. So, why haven't I seen you out there in the surf? I've actually looked many times to see if you were out there digging for clams."
"Actually, I avoided going near your home. I mean.."
"Mean what?"
"You know I live in one of those nipa huts out there at the end of the road further down from your home. None of the houses there have electric lights. No electricity, period. And the clams I'd bring home were often part of dinner."
"Wait, are you embarrassed about all that? Before I could say anything, she said, "Oh here's the driver now. And Mama too. I have to go."
That was it for weeks that followed. I was focused on school. To stay in Section One meant maintaining good grades. And there are those in the lower sections striving to get elevated to Section One so the possibility was real and so was the embarrassment of demotion to Section Two, or worse, Section Four and beyond.
Every now and then Adelina and I would run into each other. It was a big school and she was a sophomore already so our classes hardly intersected. Sometimes she'd invite me to the school cafeteria if our breaks between classes coincided, but she had friends with her and she secretly paid for my snack without the other girls knowing it. I mean, I hardly had ten centavos in my pocket.
Later though, I'd make excuses not to meet up with her and her friends anymore. She knew I was avoiding her.
It was almost near the end of the school year when Adelina caught up with me as I was heading to the exit gate to walk home.
"Hi. Are you still mad at me?"
"No, why should I be?"
"Listen. School will soon end. I'd like to talk to you before the long break from school begins. Tomorrow, Friday, my mom and two sisters will go to the hacienda early. The driver will be back to pick me up from school in the afternoon but we won't leave together with the two maids till the following morning. I'd like you to have an early dinner with me tomorrow at home. I promise you will be back to your family by sunset."
Somehow, I said yes, ignoring what my mother said.
The following afternoon as the bell rang I gathered my books and ran to the front of the main school building. There was a big black car and a hand was waving from the open rear window.
"You didn't have to run. I just got here myself".
The driver, glancing at the rear view mirror said, "This is your first time to ride in a car, isn't it?"
That set Adelina to a controlled fury I did not expect. "Why don't you just drive us home. There is no need to insult my friend that way. We pay you to just drive, that is all you have to do." It was a short drive really but the palpable silence that followed made it painfully long.
By the time we got out of the car Adelina was back to her usual cheery mood. The driver said something about the time of the morning he will be back for the drive to the hacienda. Adelina said, "Come a little bit early so you can eat breakfast here". The driver smiled, said yes, and looked at me as if to say sorry. I motioned as if to say it was nothing.
"Sit down. We'll start eating at before five, is that all right?"
"Sure," I said, almost absentmindedly as I marveled at the "sala" which means living room or receiving area of a big house. There was white polished marble floor and thick, heavy drapes around, some paintings and small corner tables where there were corners.
The maid came with two glasses of cold water and some thinly sliced ham. "Don't eat too much of that so you don't spoil your appetite," Adelina said smiling.
"I know you probably have some questions to ask me. Perhaps, why am I in a public high school instead of the private La Consolacion Catholic School? My two sisters went there before the war and then went on to study in Madrid. You see, our father together with my two sisters left for Spain just before the war started. My mother was to follow but then after Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Manila the next day, she was not able to leave. I was born in 1944 just as the war was winding down."
"My two sisters came back in 1946 without father. He died there of a heart attack in 1945. I see that puzzled look in your face. That makes me two years older than you. I'm fourteen.
"Yes."
"My mother met another man who helped her manage the haciendas while my sisters and father were in Spain. So, Florinda and Esperanza are my half sisters. They're twenty three and twenty four years old now. You don't need to know the details about my birth. Nobody really paid attention during the chaos of the war when my mother was pregnant with me. She stayed at the hacienda, secluded and away from those who knew her."
The maid announced that dinner was ready.
Adelina continued talking as we headed to the dining area. "As you can see, I am all Filipina, unlike my two mestiza sisters. My mother wanted me to go to the public high school and I wanted to as well. That is why I am not at La Consolacion."
There was a twelve-seat dining table at the huge dining area but food was laid out for us on a square table next to a window. I have not seen so much meat served on the table that way. There was sinigang of meat and vegetable and meats cooked adobo style and one plate with grilled pork.
Adelina talked and ate but she did it with such grace I hardly noticed her mouth full. It was a new experience for me, to say the least.
I was so full I barely touched the mango dessert.
She spoke for just a bit about her two sisters and their father. Their father was one of the Spanish land barons who owned much of the haciendas that grew sugar cane. Florinda and Esperanza took more from their father. She showed me the picture frame on the wall. They were typical Spanish mestizas, half Spanish, half Filipina. They looked beautiful, I thought, a most perfect blend of the two races. But Adelina was really pretty, and I told her that. She blushed and thanked me for saying it.
It was close to six o'clock by the time we finished. She understood I had to leave as the sun was setting. I walked home disbelieving what just happened. I had to come up with a good excuse for coming home late and an even better excuse for not eating as much during dinner.
I didn't see Adelina for the next two months. She did tell me that the family would be spending more time at the hacienda or go on trips to Manila for much of the two months that school was out. She mentioned about being excited at becoming a junior in high school next year and can't really wait to be in college. My prospect for college was a 50-50 possibility, I told her. She had some encouraging words for me at dinner that one late afternoon but I really can't remember what they were.
I saw her the weekend before the start of the new school year.
That afternoon I went to dig for clams during the low tide. I wasn't really into it other than to walk near Adelina's home. My heart beat faster when I saw her waving for me to come over.
"I will be away for good. Sadly, I must and you won't see me after today forever."
"What?"
"I will tell you later tonight. Make some excuse at home but be here at around nine. Come through the back. I know the moon is out and it's going to be dark but please come."
Then out the back door, her two sisters appeared. Yes, indeed, they were gorgeous and tall. One said, "So, this is your friend. Hi, she said. I'm Florinda and this is Esperanza. Good to meet you. We're running late Adelina, you need to change quickly. We're going out. We don't want mother to come out here to get us, do we? So sorry we have to go but it was good to meet you at last."
I was too, I said. Adelina smiled, fluttering her fingers as if to say, "Later". Then all three turned towards the door.
I mustered the best excuse I could come up with. I told my parents that I and several friends will get together that evening to bid goodbye to the last day of vacation from school. My parents bought it but I must be home by no later than 10:00. Ten o'clock at night was really late, so my parents were very permissive that evening. In those days people were mostly in bed by nine.
I brought the flashlight. That was not unusual back then when there were no street lights on unpaved paths. I did go see some friends who were just hanging out at a friend's backyard. I needed to have my story straight in case my parents checked later. I reached Adelina's home through the back. Their home was dark except for the light downstairs. Then I saw the door open. Adelina waved me in.
She explained that the maids are usually allowed one weekend a month away to be with their families. "They sleep at the maid's quarter, of course, on most days but not tonight. There's nobody but me and you .."
"What about your mother and sisters?"
"That's what I was going to talk to you about. Come upstairs. Use your flashlight so we don't have to turn the lights on." We reached the upstairs foyer and Adelina pointed to a door. "This room here is always locked. Nobody goes in here. The three other bedrooms we use. I sleep in one and my sisters sleep in the other two. Our mother sleeps downstairs. There is also a guest room next to hers."
"Won't your sisters hear us?" She ignored what I said.
"I have the key to open this door. Turn the flashlight off." I was behind her as we entered and I noticed the windows were wide open. I sensed the curtains being blown in by the breeze coming from the sea but the room was pitch black.
"Let me explain and you listen carefully. My mother and sisters go out by that window and they come back the same way."
"What are you talking about?"
"Surely, you have heard the stories, haven't you? In a minute I will let you turn the flashlight on but not for very long, okay. My mother and two sisters leave the lower half of their bodies here and they fly out. Don't worry, they go far away from here. Your barrio is safe from them."
I was trembling with fear at that point. I wanted to leave right away but I froze. My legs felt numb.
"Listen and listen carefully. I like you and I wish we can really be friends forever but I am leaving after tonight." Her voice is loud and clear but I can't see anything.
"Now turn on the flashlight and turn it off right away."
I let out a shriek. I felt the urge to pee but I held it. There were three pairs of legs under the skirts attached to their abdomens and nothing of the upper half.
"Shut the flashlight off now." She grabbed it from me and turned it off herself.
I was frozen stiff. "You'll be alright. I'll get you some water downstairs. Let's go."
I could not talk. I don't know how I made it downstairs
She sat me down on a chair. I drank the water when she handed me the glass.
"I found out who my real father is and for all of fourteen years since my birth he knew who I was all along. He manages one of the haciendas up to now. I was oblivious to all of that but I knew he was always kind to me every time we visited the haciendas. He too is a mestizo. All that time I just knew him as the manager of the hacienda. He will be here before midnight to take me."
"What will happen to.."
Before I could finish my question, Adelina said, "My father will know what to do. Don't worry, everything will be alright. And by the way, I am so very sorry about all of these.
I thought I was going to throw up but I did not have the energy. "I am really sorry, I am. But we will make it right. My father and I will, I promise."
I did not hear anything more what Adelina said after that although I knew she kept talking as I stood up to leave. I bolted out of there while Adelina started sobbing. I managed to beat the 10 o'clock curfew.
The following morning it was all that people in the barrio talked about. Actually, it was all the talk over the radio stations in the entire city.
There was a fire in the early morning hours. It was not so much that but what the firemen and the police discovered. The top floor of the big house - Adelina's home - was completely burned. Discovering that there were bodies found in one of the rooms was one thing but the biggest mystery was the missing upper parts of the three pairs of legs near each other.
Murder investigations started right away. The maids were cleared because they were with their families. The driver and everyone that worked around the house were likewise cleared. It was established that Adelina was at one of the family's haciendas that night. Forensic investigation back then was rudimentary but it was assumed that the bodies were those of the mother and her two daughters. The sympathies were focused on Adelina as the lone survivor of a heinous crime. However, people knew little about the family.
I never told anyone about what I saw that night and about ever knowing Adelina or what little I knew about her family. First of all, I knew my mother warned me about going back to the house ever again so it was prudent to never tell anyone at all. The crime remained unsolved and after a year the talks and rumors dissipated. Partly, that was due to the lukewarm sympathy for the rich family and their isolation from most people.
In the beginning it was a struggle to forget everything. But it got easier as time passed. I focused on school and I stayed at Section One for all of four years of high school.
Somehow I was able to blot the whole saga out of my mind. I did go to college and worked in Manila. I met my wife there and years later we immigrated to the U.S. with our two children. Fast forward to now and I am happily retired. My wife and I are enjoying the dream home that she and I both longed for from the time we got married, followed by the decision to immigrate to the U.S.
I have never once recounted that part of the story of my childhood to anyone. Never once did I want to revisit those memories.
Never once until recently.
I and my wife would often hear strange sounds around the house, at night mostly. Then every now and then while watching TV in the family area, I'd catch a fleeting shadow of something move across the foyer about sixteen feet away where lighting was subdued. One day my wife was looking for a couple of checks she had prepared to send out. At the same time I was missing a tool that I knew I had with me while working on something in the bedroom. I know there was no way I mislaid it and if I did I looked everywhere, even under the bed. It was just simply impossible to miss it.
My wife never found the checks. She knows she had written them because the duplicates were in the checkbook. I didn't find the tool either.
I woke up one night. It was just past midnight. Nothing unusual because I would get up twice throughout the night to go to the bathroom. Or, as the case this time, I wanted to get a drink of water as my throat felt dry. I went out of the bedroom and walked to the kitchen. Before I could turn on the light I saw someone sitting on one of the chairs around the breakfast table.
She had a white dress. One elbow was resting on the table while the other was on her lap. She looked at me. It was the smile that brought it all back.
I said quietly, "Adelina?"
She just smiled. "But this is not possible. You should be over eighty years old now but it is you, isn't it?" Actually, it was her if she were in her twenties.
Then she spoke. "I aged only a year for every five of yours. You don't have to calculate. I would be twenty five, right?
"No, this is impossible. How can you do this to me? It was torment that I was put through that night in 1959. Why?"
"I am so sorry again. But this is really my last goodbye to you. I promise. I'm moving on to somewhere I will never return from to torment you, as you put it."
But how? How on earth is this happening? But I must know before you leave, if you are leaving at all.
"My father came half an hour after you were gone. He set the house on fire before we left just a little after midnight . My father knew that that was the only way to end the curse. He did not know about my mother and my two sisters until much later. I kind of suspected something when I turned thirteen. But it was when I turned fourteen when I confirmed to him what he suspected. But it took him a while to conceive a plan."
"Did you know already when that bird flew out of your hand back on that day I met you?"
"Yes. But I knew I was not like her or my two sisters."
"But why did you not age as much?"
"That is the sad part. You talk about your torment. What about my torment? I am my mother's daughter. I had and still have her genes."
"You mean?"
"Yes. But this I promised myself then and now. You were really my only true friend although it was not much of a friendship, was it? I mean we didn't really get to be around each other much like real friends, did we? It was two years later after the fire when I knew I had my mother's blood in me. But I kept my one promise. I will never bother you, your family or any of the people in your barrio. But I became what I became and still am. But this is goodbye forever.
She smiled. Then she looked sad. Her face transformed, then she vanished into thin air.
I stood there for a minute. Her face ..
