The Witch Who Becomes a Healer

After typhoon Pablo ruined all the rice fields of Calipaian a month ago, Evanita has since been short of money to support her food. She had sold all the remaining sacks of rice in the wet market. She hadn’t expected the calamity. Pablo’s fury uprooted even the sweet potato and taro she had planted in the backyard. The root crops could have been a fair provision until she could plant and harvest rice again. Now, the option to survive is to borrow money from someone in the village.

Evanita starts in her nearest neighbor located a hundred meters across the devastated rice fields. She knocks on the doors of all the houses that she could see from his house. Sadly, no one can lend her money. Some of them would say they are also in need, while others would say their money is just enough for them. She feels sincerity from a few.

The next morning Evanita continues the search for a generous heart. But, she always gets the same untruthful reason. She shakes her head because she would be out of food the day after tomorrow.

***

Cadio hears a knock on the door. “Lita, will you see who is it?” he says, and then goes back to blow the furnace.

Jaquelita puts a stop to the rocking cradle where Marve silently sleeps. She opens the door.

A woman is standing in the doorway. She is wearing a salakot, soil-stained checkered long sleeve, and ragged blue jeans. She takes off the salakot and sets it in her chest. “Maayong adlaw,” she says, forcing a smile.

Jaquelita compensates the greeting with a suspicious look.

“I’m Evanita, your neighbor. I live there.” The woman points to the house across the rice fields.

“What can I do for you?” Jaquelita asks in a stiff tone.

“Who is it, Lita?” Cadio says.

“She said she’s our neighbor.”

Cadio leaves the kitchen to see the guest. “Maayong adlaw, Evanita. Come in and have a seat.” He offers a wooden stool to Evanita.

“Daghang salamat.” Evanita sits down.

“What can we do for you?” Cadio settles down on a bamboo sofa facing the door.

“Remember the typhoon a month ago?” Evanita starts. “It ruined my rice fields, as you can see. My root crops were gone too. I have almost spent all my savings on food. The next planting season is still three months from now. I do not know where to go for help. I don’t have relatives here in Calipaian. Perhaps you can lend me your extra money.” Cadio looks at Jaquelita. His wife’s eyebrows knit tautly. “I’m sorry I have the cheek to approach you. I have thought you could help.” Evanita presses her lips hard because of overwhelming embarrassment.

“You don’t have to say sorry, Evanita. We understand your situation. We, too, lost our corn farm,” says Cadio. He looks to his wife and hesitantly says, “We don’t have any extra money. We have a baby who needs formula. My wife does not produce breast milk. I hope you understand.”

“We are also in need right now,” Jaquelita chimes in. “You see.” she glances at the cradle. “Marve is sick. We can’t even afford to send him to the hospital. So if you don’t mind, go now and ask for help from other neighbors.”

Evanita stands up slowly. The clanking of her wooden sandals slowly fades out.

“Why did you lie, Lita? Marve is not sick!” Cadio stands up and kicks the stool.

“No more complaints, Cadio! I just wanted her off the house. Even if I have extra money, I won’t lend it to her. Never.”

“I told her we can’t help. You should have kept quiet.”

Marve cries. Jaquelita rocks the cradle.

***

Late afternoon Evanita sits at the table by the window. She looks out through the ruined rice fields. There in her mind plays the actions she would do sooner. She pulls the drawer from the table and rummages through the papers containing the list of her past rice sales, the list of people who had debts, and paid her in the previous months, and those who haven’t paid yet. She finds a blank paper and a pencil. She flattens the paper on the table and scribbles words on it. Once done, she folds it four times and rolls it, making a tiny paper roll. She ties it up with a thread in the middle.

Evanita closes her eyes and utters a chant. A blue kingfisher darts towards the window and perches on the sill. It chirps relentlessly, as if talking to Evanita. It hops onto the table and stops in front of her. She ties the letter in the kingfisher’s leg. She holds the bird up and whispers to it. Then it flies out through the window and to the looming twilight.

Before midnight Evanita prepares the mortar and pestle. She put three seeds into the mortar. She has one jar full of it. She grinds it and sees a flashback.

Three Spaniards chased her into the forest. Evanita ran away and heard her mother’s voice in her mind. “Palaepong nuts are found in thick bushes. Its plant grows if sprinkled with witch blood. Five out of ten witches bleed or die in thick bushes.” She looked around and saw a clearing on the other side of the forest. She ran to the clearing. Gunshots echoed in the forest. A thick bush lay half a mile ahead. She kept on running to it.

In the bush, she ripped out a flowering plant with pitch-black petals and a golden pistil. The roots held a bunch of nuts. She picked three nuts and broke the shells with her teeth. She chewed the seeds and tasted the bitterest tang she’d ever tasted. She would have vomited, but remembered never to waste a single granule. When the seeds broke into tinier bits, she gently spat them into her hands. She put on a scoop of dusty soil and made a mix. She exposed it to the sun's rays piercing through the leaves, and then she chanted.

She was kneeling when they captured her. The Teniente dragged her off. “Ella es una bruja. Matala!” he said. The two Spaniards pointed their bayonets at her. She threw the mix at them. They inhaled it and their vision blurred right away. They got paralyzed and fell to the ground. She got back to the withered plant and collected the nuts one by one.

Evanita grimaces at the memory. She has finally crushed the seeds into granules. She transfers it into a small clay pot. She pours a small amount of water. She stirs it. She gets a tiny dark-brown glass bottle with tag tears of sincerity in the cabinet. She remembers how she collected the liquid.

“A curse won’t lead to death if we put tears of sincerity.” Rosalinda put droplets to a mixture of liquid in a bowl. She dribbled the mixture into a pan of sautéed vegetables. Her two daughters gazed at how she stirred the pinakbet.

“How did you get the tears, mother?” asked Evanita’s small sister.

Rosalinda smiled. “It’s a long story, my child.” She ladled out the pinakbet into a bowl. She turned to Evanita and said, “Take this to our gossiper neighbor. Give it to them as a token of amity so they will stop gossiping about us.”

At night, Rosalinda tucked her daughters in the bed. She kissed them on the forehead and said, “Good night.”

Before her mother could go, Evanita said, “Whose tears did you put in, mother?”

“It was Bianita’s and yours.”

Before Evanita slept, she thought and realized that tears of sincerity could only be produced by people who loved her. The idea had remained unconfirmed until she grew up into a pretty young woman.

Evanita served a Spanish friar in a village in Manila. She met Crisostomo, an acolyte who fell in love with her. In his free time, Crisostomo would sneak into the convent and lay his love on her. But Evanita would pretentiously tell him she didn’t love him. He would cry and she would offer him a kerchief. When she would get home, she would wring the kerchief over a small jar. After a few months, Evanita finally told Crisostomo she also loved him. The acolyte shed a lot of tears of genuine happiness and she would offer the same kerchief.

Evanita smiles after reminiscing. She pours three droplets of tears of sincerity into the mixture. She stirs it under the fire. Steam rises. Bitter almond odor fills the kitchen. She kept on stirring until the liquid fully evaporates. The mixture precipitated into something colorful, like a small gemstone. She puts it into the mortar and pulverizes it. Finally, she places the powder into a small red pouch. “They deserve punishment,” Evanita says, casting a treacherous smile.

Evanita sings an incantation in an ancient Visayan tongue. Countless owls fly above the house. They bind their wings together to create a vehicle that resembles a carpet. They glide in front of the window. She jumps into the vehicle and waves a hand. The owls take her to the houses of the unhelpful and unkind villagers. Above the houses, she would drop a pinch of powder through the tiny holes of the roofs.

***

Marve stirs up at one in the morning. He sneezes a couple of times. Jaquelita gets up. She moves to the cradle and rocks it while rubbing her eyes. Marve cries. Jaquelita goes into the kitchen and prepares the formula. Marve cries increasingly. Jaquelita hurries and picks up Marve in her arms. She lets him suck the milk bottle, but he hurls it away. Jaquelita curses and spanks him once.

“What’s the matter, Lita?” Cadio speaks up sluggishly.

“He keeps on crying. Come over here. Make him stop.”

Cadio arises, moves to them, and takes Marve in his arms. He hums and dances rhythmically. Marve throws up a vomit. He hiccups and pukes. Jaquelita feels a sticky liquid from the baby’s bottom. She smells it and frowns in disgust. They set him down on the mat and take off the diaper.

“Marve has watery poop,” Jaquelita says, face crumpling in anxiety.

Marve hiccups and pukes again. Every after every hiccup, Marve would puke.

Cadio’s deep-set eyes widen. “Change Marve’s clothes. Pack some of them, including his blanket. Also, bring the thermos. I’ll go out and set the carabao.” Cadio reaches for the flashlight from the table and moves out to the backyard.

In a few minutes, Jaquelita comes out with Marve swaddled in a blanket in her left arm. She has slung the backpack in her right arm while holding the thermos. Cadio gets into the carabao. Jaquelita puts the items in the wooden cart. She carefully climbs inside the cart. She sits down in one corner while firmly holding Marve. Cadio clucks and they walk down a narrow road to town.

***

At the ER of the town’s hospital, Cadio meets the staff at the door.

“What’s the matter with your baby, mano?” the staff says.

“He’s thrown up many times and his poop is watery,” Cadio says.

“Come inside.” The staff offers seats to Cadio and Jaquelita. He signals the nurse to assist them.

The nurse checks Marve’s vital signs. The baby smiles at her. She turns to Cadio. “Mano, your son is doing fine. Look at him, he’s smiling at me.” Marve babbles and, in a moment, giggles.

Marve’s vital signs are normal, but his worried parents still describe what happened. The doctor explains that there’s no reason to confine him and if they insist they would spend money for nothing. “We should have brought the used diapers,” Jaquelita says to Cadio.

The couple agrees to stay in the hospital lobby until daybreak. Marve has been actively playing with the milk bottle, chattering as if talking to someone invisible.

When Marve falls asleep, Cadio notices his neighbor Felix go out from the ER. Cadio stands and blocks his way. “What happens to you, Felix?”

“Why are you here, Cadio?” Felix says, surprised.

“We’ve been here since three. I thought my son is sick,” Cadio says, pointing to his wife and baby, “but his vital signs are normal said the nurse.”

“What do you mean?” Felix frowns.

“Marve had watery poop. He vomited many times in the house. But, I’m thankful that he’s no longer showing any signs of it. He’s okay now.”

Felix’s eyes widen. “Me too.”

“Huh. You have LBM too?” Cadio grins.

“No! I had chest pains and I could hardly breathe. I thought I had a heart attack. I struggled to ride on my carabao, but I must come here. I don’t want to die.”

Cadio grimaces. “You seem fine now.”

Felix nods. “When I got here, the pain was gone. I suddenly breathed normally. They checked my BP. It’s normal. I have my blood tested for cholesterol and sugar too. Need to go back here tomorrow for the results.”

“Cadio!” Jaquelita calls out, “it’s our neighbor Gorio.” She points to the ER door. Gorio is frowning in pain.

Author's note: Please continue in Part II