Chapter Two
WHAT HAPPENED THERE was and still is a mystery. And Insiang Pina never talked about it.
The elders said that on that very same day, at almost sunset, the carriage came to town. People literally stopped what they were doing to gaze in awe at the magnificent sight that passed through the center of town.
In a small town, big news travel fast. Four Spanish soldiers on horses arrived before long, followed by the town’s Spanish mayor, Colonel Ortiz. They blocked the carriage and in Spanish, cautiously demanded that the occupants inside show themselves. With a carriage as beautiful as this, it could only mean one thing -- someone important was inside.
Julio recounted what Inkong Tiburcio described. Everyone had held their breath when the carriage’s door opened slowly. The hinges were apparently well-oiled as it did not make a sound.
To their surprise, Insiang Pina stepped out, smiling. There was something odd about her, however, like she was drunk. She did not stop after getting out but just walked in the direction to her house.
Naturally the Spanish soldiers wanted to talk Pina. They began calling her, asking her to stop, but she was oblivious to them. She just continued walking. The soldiers’ voices started to rise and one of them started to go after her. He suddenly stopped.
From inside the carriage, a calm, male voice spoke in perfect Spanish, asking the soldiers to calm down and that he would explain it.
That man climbed out of the carriage. He had on a suit that not only looked good on him but also looked like it wasn’t even creased from sitting inside the carriage. Unlike most of the Spanish gentlemen that the townsfolk saw from time to time, this one was not wearing a hat.
His hair, black tinged with a lightness, was combed back. He stood above everyone else. His skin was flawless and his hands were dainty.
Inkong Burcio told Julio that he remarked, rather loudly, that the “man must not have worked a day in his life.” It was a remark that did not fall on deaf ears, for no sooner had he made that remark when the man’s deep-seated, piercing eyes found him.
Then he smiled and replied, this time in perfect unaccented dialect! The man told Burcio that he was right.
The man then walked towards the four soldiers and waited there until the Spanish mayor arrived. From that point on, they spoke like they were old friends. There was no denying that the man seemed important. The golden adornments on him didn’t hurt either. He had a gold ring, a golden bracelet, and a gold timepiece. Even his cane was gold tipped!
Even the townsfolk that dealt with the Spanish directly from time to time had a little difficulty understanding what the man and the mayor were talking about. What little they understood, and what was circulated later on in town was that the man was just passing through, that he was hoping to get to a nearby town but got lost. Nothing was told about the unremarkable driver who looked like a native as he didn’t speak either.
The man was never seen again.
In the days that came, all the focus was on Insiang Pina. It had seemed like there was nothing amiss, she still did her chores. There were attempts to breach the subject, attempts to have her tell what really happened, but they did not get anything out of her. When Insiang Pina started displaying her talents for healing, the people just took it as a confirmation of what she was trying to hide.
While hearing this tale, Julio could not help but get excited. He had talked to all the other elders and none of them were as interesting as Insiang Pina, so Julio decided to set out and get to know her. He knew she did not heal people as much now, but she was still good.
She also lived alone in her hut. Like all the other older folks, he planned to go there attempting to do the same thing, using the same alibi -- he was bored and just wanted help.
Easy, he thought.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The old healer did not receive him as well as he thought she would. When Julio went to her hut, it seemed to him like she was aloof. She took a long look at him without saying anything and by the end of that examination, she was shaking her head.
Insiang Pina did not even thank him when he volunteered to chop wood for her.
Their conversation was also dry and uneventful, consisting of just a few phrases necessary for communication. Julio felt like she was watching him intently. He had no other choice; he decided to just ask a seemingly unrelated question to keep the conversation going. Naturally he asked about the Magarams, if she believed they existed.
He might as well have asked a tree. Not only did Insiang Pina not answer the question, she seemed like she was rooted to the ground, like she had been dreading the question.
Tales of the Magaram was common enough in town that it was even a favorite topic among the bored.
Insiang Pina’s reaction, or the lack thereof, really disappointed Julio.
THEY DID NOT talk again. Julio finished chopping wood and after he piled the logs where she kept them, he excused himself to leave. He would not be getting any answers from anyone, he thought; and it seemed he would not be getting anything close to an answer anymore.
Julio went about his daily chores without much enthusiasm in the next days. It was summertime so he had to go to the well again to get water. He did not expect anything, although he was still hoping. Despite the inescapable truth that the incidents of the previous summer would never happen again, he could not let it go.
How could he? It was the single, most exciting thing that happened to him in his entire life.
He had tried many times to go where he had encountered the bird but always managed to get lost on the way there. He found it really odd and the same time exciting, that he only got lost on the way there but not on the way back to town.
The day when he had accepted the fact that it was just a one-time event and would never happen again, Julio was filled with anger and frustration. The days after that were hard. He was almost always irritable -- a change that got him into too many close encounters with his father when he’s drunk, which he always was. He had also become very vocal and impatient. His temper raged, like he was always itching for a fight.
It died down, but the few friends he had in the small town had gotten even fewer with his antics. This led Julio to be more alone than he had been, until he learned to prefer the solitude. His time spent imagining the world of the Magarams was more exciting than living his everyday life. All his chores and responsibilities were attended to with the air of an automaton. Although he had accepted that it would be very unlikely to happen again, nothing could stop him from imagining it.
The makeshift necklace fashioned out of twines containing the two feathers and the scale he had recovered from his fight reminded him of the incident. The artifacts still looked the way they did when he first got them; the feathers, unlike other feathers, were exceptionally resilient.
He lightly touched the feathers and scales with his left hand while the right dragged the wooden bucket behind him. It was almost midday, and Julio was on the way to the well. Like the previous summer, he had chosen this time of the day so that he could avoid waiting in line. He also hated the idea of gossiping which seemed to happen whenever two or more people got together.
It was not because he was in a hurry. On the contrary, he found that lounging and daydreaming under the trees’ shade was the best pastime there ever was. As he trudged along the path that would take him to the deep well, his head filled with thoughts of adventure.
One of them, his favorite, involved taming the great bird in the end and making it a companion in his imaginary adventures.
Before his busy mind registered the sight, his body had already reacted. So vivid was his imagination that he had painted the picture clearly in his mind, leaving his eyes to process the surroundings automatically and without much thought.
Julio blinked.
His heart raced and his breathing tried to catch up.
At a distance, descending down the slope on the other side of the mount
ain, the mysterious girl that kept him awake for many nights was walking away.
His fantasies had touched reality yet, at that moment, he did not know which was which. Julio had to literally verbalize the word run to spur his body into action. Once he was sure he was not imagining things, he ran towards the girl, tossing the empty bucket beside the well’s pump without a second thought.
Even with the bucket on her shoulders, she still walked at a steady pace. It was as if the bucket was just a mere prop, just like he remembered.
Once he got to the slope, he paused just to observe his distance. He was frowning. He ran, he knew he did. She was always within his sight but not getting nearer.
By the time he had reached the slope, she was already at the bottom.
Even if there were no shrubs, rocks, or slippery earth, walking at that pace could not have gotten her there in such a short time. Yet she was there!
How did she end up there so fast?
Just like the previous summer, he waited until she reached the grassy portion of the area below before he descended down the slope. Just like the previous summer, Julio made good time going down. When he reached the bottom, he made sure that he approached the grassy area at an angle so that he would have time to hide if she would turn around.
When he had gotten halfway to the gully, she was already towards the bend, much like before.
Without taking his eyes off her, last summer’s adventure sprung back into his thoughts. He had followed her exactly like this the last time. He remembered the way. He remembered the place where he lost her. There were three pathways, and the first one he took led him to the great bird.
If he lost her today, he decided the most likely course -- the pathway that turned once and headed straight for a distance.
When he reached the gully, he lost sight of her; she had turned at the bend. Already, the place seemed familiar to him. He did not even try to hide the sounds of his feet as he walked on the side of the gully where there was no water. He did not concern himself with how the pathway got narrower with each step or how the sides went higher. It was all familiar to him, like he was just here yesterday.
But even as he was quicker this time, he found himself confronted with the same set of circumstances that he had last summer.
He was now in the part where there were several paths and the woman was nowhere in sight. He remembered that he was unable to catch up with her the last time by choosing to go through the winding path. This time, he made for the path that turned once and went straight for a long distance.
His effort was rewarded. As soon as he turned the corner, he caught a glimpse of her. She was already on the opposite end of the path.
Clearly there must be another turn, he thought.
Onwards Julio raced, aiming to close the gap between him and the lady. He had finally abandoned all pretenses. He ran towards her, seeing that she was about to turn to her right just like he had anticipated.
He called out to her, asking her to stop.
But the lady acted as if she did not even hear him. She turned right and disappeared from his view. Julio to pick up his pace. His focus was very intense, with all his frustrations from the year before multiplying tenfold.
Upon reaching the turn, it opened up and ended at a new exit.
And there was, once again, no trace of the mysterious lady.
In front of him was a grassy area. The ground he stood on sloped down slightly and as he walked to the edge of the pathway, he could see the great expanse covered by the grass.
His frustrations grew when he realized that the grass here was significantly taller. When he walked towards it, he found that it was at eye level! He looked left and right, the woman was not in sight. She could just be a few feet away from him and he would not know until she made a sound!
He listened for a few seconds. There were no sounds except the faint sound of grass rubbing against each other in the soft midday breeze. A sudden flash of inspiration brought him literally back. Julio backed into the entrance of the pathway to gain higher ground. The slope was gentle and he did not gain as much as he had hoped for, but it was as good as any at the moment.
Here, he saw the entire grassy landscape that stretched far into the distance.
Julio meticulously scanned the area, and idea proved to be correct.
At a distance, to his right, Julio spied a moving object among the tall grass -- it was the bucket! And there was her hand, too!