The Advice

I’ll tell you why, Marga. I’ve known him since childhood. I’ve been here in this sitio since birth. His family came and settled here when he was a kid, just about my age.

I will not repeat this, Marga. I’ve already told you so many times. Leave him or else you will end up in the grave like his past wives.

You know he had already married five times before you came into his life. Do you see what happened to them, those women? They all died young. You see, Marga?

You still have time to leave him, to have a chance to live your life longer. You pack up your things now, Marga. Take only those you need, enough for you to carry, and ride a bus outside of this village. Never come back here. Tomorrow will be your one year with him.

I’m here to tell you again that all his wives died exactly after one year of marriage. Don’t think of me telling you nonsense, Marga. I’m just concerned about you. I don’t want a good friend like you to suffer and die. Just like them, you’re still young, but they were unfortunate. I’ve been telling you, Marga, from the start, when you weren’t yet lovers when he was just courting you. But you didn’t listen.

His fifth wife, Lolita, was an excellent swimmer but was found dead on the beach. They said she drowned. I know she didn’t. She was my friend, just like you. They took her away from him. You ask me who? The diwatas.

His fourth wife, Violi, was not that close to me, but sometimes we talked about anything of our interest. She was hit-and-run by a car according to the tanods. Do you see it? The police never found out who the culprit was. Look, someone found her lying down the road unconscious, dead. Her face was drenched with thick blood. There was a big slit on her forehead. Oh, Marga, I wouldn’t tell you more, it’s just giving me the shudder. The diwatas made it to her.

His third wife, Susanna, was also a friend of mine. She was living in the next barangay. You and I went there once when you were just a tourist here. Remember when I asked you to come with me to attend a benefit dance? Do you remember that fiesta?

Susanna was exquisite and kind. Town folks said she was with another guy in town. But actually, it was her cousin visiting her. A year after her wedding with him, she was discovered dead behind a bush; they tore apart the dress and stripped off the underwear. Do you see how heinous the crime was? Her cousin was the primary suspect, but was actually innocent. They have not resolved the case until now. I always know it was the diwatas. Oh, Marga, never push me to tell the stories of the first two wives. I don’t have the courage.

Please leave him tonight when you still have time, Marga. We’ve been friends since you came here. Please listen to me.

What! You love him so much that you can’t leave him?

No, Marga. Don’t be stupid! I know it’s hard. But you can still find a man not stricken with a curse. He has a curse! Do you see what has happened to him? Every year, he gets married. He changes his wife. No! Not changes. Every year a woman dies for him. Marga, it’s obvious. Be sensible! Now, if you still don’t listen to me, I will tell you about the other two wives. Again. Please, God, give me courage.

Cristina, his second wife, was cheerful and spirited. No one had ever expected she would die because of an unknown disease. Before her death, she had been in bed for a month. Oh God, Marga, I paid her a visit one time, and I saw her. Skin and bone. I couldn’t even recognize her at first. She was extremely sick, pale as death had slowly devoured her. She still smiled at me, though. But the thing is, she couldn’t speak. I could not bear how she had suffered for a long time. He’d taken her to the provincial hospital, but the doctor found no cause to her illness. He believes in witchcraft, so he took her to the albolario. Do you remember Mang Husting? Mang Husting also knew it was the diwatas, but he couldn’t tell her husband. It was the curse that caused her suffering. The curse which her husband has absorbed when the diwatas punished him for flirting with the girls.

Marga, you see my tears streaming down. I’m telling you the truth. Please leave him tonight.

What! It seems that you don’t believe me, Marga.

This is the last time I’m going to tell you about his first wife, Marga. And I expect you will listen to my advice.

His first wife, Lope, was the daughter of Aling Beaning, the Kagawad. Do you see the cemented house near Mang Kanor’s farm? The one alongside the river? That’s it. They lived there, Aling Beaning and Lope. Her father died because of tuberculosis. It was a few years back before Lope and he got married. Lope’s father had left them the rice field.

Lope was my playmate when we were kids. But, we were not that close because she studied in town and I just studied in the village school. We played tumbang-preso and pantintero with him and other kids in the sitio. Nobody had ever thought that they would become lovers, Lope and him because they always quarreled when we play.

In our teens, they still did not like each other. When Lope graduated from college in Cebu City and came back home, the love had grown. But before that, rumor has it; he had broken many girls’ hearts in Manila and here… in the sitio.

The sitio residents said she was his match. They thought he would no longer flirt after they got married. And it came true. He loved her as much as the diwata, whose heart he’d broken, loved him. I know it, Marga, believe me. I was that… oh no… don’t let me say this.

Anyway, Lope and he were living a happy-ever-after life. But just like his next wives, they never had a kid. It’s part of the curse, I know that. Lope never knew that he has a curse.

After a year of marriage, Aling Beaning came over to the house and found Lope hanging on a rope. She was bloodless, white, firm as stone. Her eyes almost fell out of the sockets. Her veins stood out on her cheeks. She had wet the floor beneath her dangling feet. She had been dead for two hours as what the police investigators found out afterward. The town’s consensus, it was a suicide. But there was no suicide note. And I didn’t believe it. There was no reason she would have done it. They loved each other, just like you and him, loving each other.

Now, Marga, will you listen to me? You still have time to leave, Marga. Do it tonight when he’s busy drinking with his friends.

Just for me, Marga. Just for me. I’m your friend. Please leave him to me.