THE REALMS OF KAHILWAYAN: Alunsina Chronicles

Chapter 5 - It is Them!

They were engrossed in prayer that they did not notice she was gone for a good while. She did not want to disturb any of them so she knelt at the back by the door of Apuy 'Sina's room.

Probably out of compulsion that she wanted all the candles always lit for Apuy 'Sina, she eyeballed each one to check if there were some that needed to be replaced. She already counted 80 "perdons" halfway lit. There were already about too much at 80, knowing it could be a fire hazard, but she was not done yet. She continued counting, nodding ceremoniously at every count. Eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three... And by the time she reached "perdon" no. ninety-six, the hair at the back of her neck raised. She knew there was a word for her experience, some foreign sounding word she learned in school. It's that word that means like everything seems to have happened already. That's what is happening, and she was sure of it. Every detail of it. Everything was the way it was before she even stood up and started replacing the candles, way before she saw Amihan and Kanayon.

"What is going on," she asked flustered, running towards the window, toppling Apuy 'Sina's brass vase. It fell on the floor, the preserved roses scattered all over, as the brass vase dribbled into the middle of the room clanging every time it hit the hardwood floors. Everyone scrambled, swallowing their prayers with curses.

"Ay, sa kalinti!" her father, Miguel, exclaimed. "What happened? -"

"Juana, hija," her mother, Maria, joined in. "What's wrong? You are disturbing the prayers!"

Juana ignored them as she frantically inspected the window, peeking closely into the same cracks she saw Amihan and Kanayon. She looked around, consumed in her thoughts, tracing her path from memory, starting where she was kneeling, going through one "perdon" after another, until she was back in front of the window, staring at the last yellow "perdon", the one she replaced an hour or so ago.

What's happening, she asked herself, clenching her fist in panic, tracing in her mind the path she took around Apuy 'Sina's room, when she left the house, walked into the hill, meeting Amihan and Kanayon, and her way back.

"This doesn't make sense." She said to herself, but loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.

"What doesn't make sense, Juana?" Maria, her mother, asked, coming closer to her, Felipe tugging on her blouse behind her. "What are you looking for, Juana?"

Clara was still kneeling by the leg of Sina's bed, unmoved unlike everyone else by the commotion. She was just there observing her grand-daughter, worried. This was not a coincidence, she thought to herself, that whatever was going on with Juana has something to do with 'Sina. She knew Juana had a special bond with her.

She composed herself and signalled for Kulas to help her up. At seventy-five, kneeling was a pain, but standing up was a bitch, she cursed to herself, hearing Kulas count, "One, two, three," like she was really incapable of standing on her own. Depressing, but it's a fact of life, my life, she resolved, as she stood on her feet on "four" by Kulas' count.

"Hija," she called Juana, approaching her. "What is wrong?"

Juana did not respond. She did not even hear Clara call her. She was there frozen in front of the window, the light from the yellow "perdon" washing her from, she was like a silhouette from behind.

Clara went in front of her, covering the window behind her. "Look at me." She said, pulling her chin up. Locking eyes with Juana's, bewildered, she asks with all the calm she can summon, "What did you see?"

"Nay," Miguel interrupted, "What do you mean what did you see? Are there people there?" It is not the first time random kids, drunk from a "baile" in a "purok", cause them more than a nuisance. There was one time he needed to repair the fences in front of the house after they ransacked it out of their own wits. And so, agitated, he dashed towards the window to open it and scold them off.