The Witch Who Becomes a Healer

Author's note: Please read Part I

The family goes back home in the morning. Marve has been sleeping like a log in Jaquelita’s arm. When they reach the house, Marve blinks his eyes against the sunlight shining through the window. He stares up at his mother and glares as if a bad dream has woken him up.

“Hey, how’s my cutie doing?” Jaquelita kisses Marve on the forehead.

Cadio removes the head yoke from the carabao. He takes the carabao into the meadow, which is a few yards from the back of the house. He ties up the rope attached in the carabao’s nose to the coconut tree. Before he could tighten up the rope, he hears Jaquelita calling his name. He dashes off, leaving the animal grazing the grass. As he gets closer, he could hear Marve wail like a hog when slaughtered.

Cadio sees greenish vomit splatters over Marve’s blanket. Jaquelita wipes it off. Cadio inserts a finger in the diaper. It feels sticky. “You wait for me on the road. I’ll go get the carabao,” he says.

Cadio clucks and applies more leg pressure to the carabao. The carabao moves faster. The cart bumps against the rough road. The dragging sound of the wheel mingles with Marve’s cry.

Along the way, a tricycle passes by. Felix is in there, twisting his face. Cadio calls him. Felix taps the driver to stop. Cadio stops the carabao beside the tricycle.

“Where are you going, Felix?” Cadio says.

“To Adaban village. The doctors can’t cure me.” Felix wheezes.

“Who are you going to?”

“To a healer named Aling Bianita!” Felix holds his chest and taps the driver. The tricycle rushes off.

Adaban is in the middle of the forest of the next town. It would take two hours to get there with a carabao. Cadio resolves to head town first and, from there, to take a tricycle to fetch them to Adaban. He clucks and whips the carabao with the rope.

***

The tricycle stops by a narrow road leading to a hut. “That’s the healer’s hut,” says the tricycle driver, pointing to the hut. Cadio climbs down the sidecar and assists his wife. He looks to the hut and notices someone go down the four-step bamboo stairs from the door. It’s Felix, face glowing like daylight. They meet midway to the house.

“You’ve made the right decision when you take your child here,” Felix says.

“Yes. How are you feeling?”

“I’m absolutely fine.” Felix chuckles.

Jaquelita gets near Felix. “How much did you pay?” she says in a low voice.

“She does not ask for a payment. But she accepts donations. The man who took me here told me I need to pay money so the cure would take effect.”

“So how much did you give?” Jaquelita says.

“Fifty times cheaper than the hospital bill.”

“Let’s hurry, Lita,” Cadio says and strides to the house.

The healer opens the door before Cadio could take the first step in the bamboo stairs.

“Come on in,” the healer smiles, tightening up her lip. Her front teeth were gone from the blow she got from burglars decades ago.

The family gets inside. Marve stops crying. The healer offers them a long bamboo stool facing the window. “What a cute baby,” she compliments and Marve babbles. “When did it start?” she says.

“Around one in the morning today,” Cadio says.

The healer gets the oil lamp and takes off the glass covering it. She opens the matchbox and ignites the lamp. “Let us see who has caused it,” she says. She goes down to the kitchen at the back. She gets a small black basin, puts it in the sink, and turns on the faucet. She turns off the faucet when the basin is half-full. She carries the basin in her rheumatic hands to the table and puts it beside the oil lamp. She pulls out a yellow candle in her duster’s pocket and lights it from the oil lamp. “Come close to me, lady,” she says to Jaquelita.

The healer holds Marve’s hand to feel the pulse. She utters a spell in Visayan tongue while holding the candle over the basin. She waits for the wax to melt and drop into the water. When the candle has melted halfway, the wax floating in the water binds into an image of a bird. “It’s an owl!” she declares.

“What does that mean?” Cadio says eagerly.

“Some elementals pretend to be animals to cause malady.” The healer pinches the wick to kill the flare. She puts the candle back in her pocket. She reaches for a small bottle in the wooden box across the table. She opens it and pours a small amount of bluish oil into her palm. “Unbutton his sweater. I will remove the curse.” Cadio does what the healer says. She rubs the oil in Marve’s stomach. Marve smiles and giggles. She looks at them and says, “He would be fine now.”

Cadio draws out two 100-peso bills from his wallet. He tucks them under the basin enough for the healer to notice. “Thank you very much, Aling Bianita,” he says.

“Is there a way to avoid illness caused by elementals?” Jaquelita asks while changing Marve’s clothes.

The healer bows. “You have to wear preventive oil.”

“Where can we get or buy them?”

“I can make one for you. But I need a bullet cartridge.”

“What is it for?” Cadio says.

“It’s where we put the oil in. You sling it in lace and wear it in any part of your body.”

Jaquelita faces Cadio and nods at him.

“Next week we will bring the bullet cartridge,” Cadio says, moving to the door. When he opens it, he is surprised to see at least ten people lining up outside. Their faces distort as though they’ve eaten green Indian mangoes. They are neighbors in Calipaian.

***

The crows of the roosters wake Aling Bianita. She rises and pushes open the window. The fog enters the house. She smells of freshly tilled soil. She looks around the front yard. Someone is sitting down the steps. She could discern it’s a woman. The hip is prominent. She waits for the fog to clear.

“Did you get my letter?” A familiar voice jolts Aling Bianita.

“Since when have you been sitting there, mana?” Aling Bianita’s tremulous tone makes through the disappearing fog.

Evanita laugh. “A decade or so.”

Aling Bianita hastens to open the door. Evanita steps up and stops at the landing. Aling Bianita could smell naphthalene scent from Evanita’s gray blouse and palazzo pants. “You’re so young, mana. And, you are dressed to kill.”

“Of course, my dear sister. I’m young because I still put a curse on bad people,” Evanita says, grinning. “So, where’s my share?”

Aling Bianita goes to the study table and pulls out the drawer. She takes out a roll of peso bills and gives it to Evanita. “It’s all yours, mana.”

Evanita takes it. “What about you?”

“I’m contented with what I have. And I have already decided not to share with the money.”

“Bianita, those people are all thoughtless. They must be punished. They don’t deserve to have a good life. Your life is useless if you don’t help people. I have, so far, helped a lot of them in the past. They asked gantas of rice, I gave them. They borrowed money, I lent them. I have never asked them to pay me. I waited. Some paid but some haven’t up to now.” Evanita sighs. “I have wanted to be on the good side. But if there are still people like them, that’s another story. To punish them doesn’t mean to end their life. It’s a matter of making them realize how it feels to be in need with no one to reach out to.”

“I get your point, mana. But that’s the reality. Not all people are kind, selfless, and helpful. They probably have reasons they didn’t help you.” Aling Bianita sits down on the long bamboo stool.

“Given that, I helped them?” Evanita sits down too beside Aling Bianita.

“Some people don’t pay a debt of gratitude. That’s life, mana.”

“You’re really soft, Bianita. Look at yourself. Your kindness has made you old and infirm. It will be the reason for your death, my sister.”

“Yes, mana, that’s right. We have lived even before the Spanish came. I’m tired of living my life putting curses on people and healing people who don’t deserve to be healed. I guess this is the right time for me to finally rest — in peace.” Aling Bianita’s eyes redden.

Evanita draws closer to Aling Bianita and hugs her. Tears stream down Aling Bianita’s wrinkled face. Aling Bianita takes off a bronze medallion dangling in her neck. Engraved in the medallion is “3uu”. It’s a badlit that means “to cure”. She stares down at it and remembers how she got it.

Lamrag and Laum were playing syato in the front yard when they heard a commotion in the seashore. Lamrag dropped the sticks of rattan and looked farther to the fishermen running towards them. Behind the frightened fishermen were Moros. The blades of their barongs and spears gleamed in the morning sunlight. Lamrag dragged her small sister to the back of the hut. They crawled to hide in the chopped wood fuels under the hut. Lamrag cupped Laum’s mouth.

The ground shook as the Moros dropped Kusog. The Moro leader pointed his barong to Kusog’s tense chest. He rammed it so hard that its sharp edge touches the ground. He put his foot to Kusog and pulled the barong off. Blood splattered on Kusog’s chest. The Moro leader waved his hand at his men. They ransacked the hut and took anything they could. “Burn the hut!” he said. And they moved on to the next hut a hundred yards away.

The sisters rushed off to Kusog who had been catching his breath. They wept over him. Their innocent tears blended with their father’s pure-Malay blood.

“Stay with father, Laum,” Lamrag said, getting up to her feet. She ran towards the stream a mile away from the village where Haruk was washing clothes.

Kusog tried to speak up, but blood came out of his mouth. He made every effort to untie something from his waist. Laum saw it was a bronze medallion. She helped him do it.

“Laum,” Kusog said in between dying breaths, “keep this. Use it to heal the sick.”

When Haruk arrived, her husband was already dead. She broke down and cried. She crept and clasped Kusog’s stiff body. She kneeled and looked up. “Abba! Why did you take him?” She sobbed in despair. “I curse you for taking him away!” Thunder crackled over them. Thick dark clouds formed and moved like sails, covering the morning sun. Lightings struck and slashed some coconut trees. And a heavy downpour fell to the bereaved family. Haruk turned to Laum who was holding the medallion.

The next day, Haruk and her daughters set out to Sugbu barefoot. “Lamrag and Laum, we will start a new life in Sugbu,” said Haruk. “I heard the Spanish are helping Sugbuanon. We will submit to their wants. We will submit to their religion and change our names.” Lamrag and Laum nodded. They traced a shabby passage. Laum walked warily, gripping the medallion slung in her neck.

Evanita puts her sister back to reality. “I think if I stayed with father before he died, I would have been the healer,” she says, smiling.

“Now you’ll become.” Aling Bianita hands out the medallion to her. “I know no one to give this to.”

“That’s the only thing that keeps you alive, my sister. You sure you’re giving it to me?”

“I am, mana,” she sighs. “I’ve cured many people, but I’ve also killed a lot of dogs and cats. You see, I have none of them now.”

“So, who absorbs the curses?”

“I do. I can no longer stomach seeing another dog or another cat die in front of me.”

Evanita feels her sister’s struggle. She hugs her again. “I love you, Laum,” she says, tears flowing out of her eyes. She lets go and takes the medallion. She stands up and looks down at her.

Aling Bianita casts a gleaming smile. The deferred senility because of witchcraft now continues. Blood in her veins scorches locking every part of her body. Her flesh gradually collapses until the only left is her skeleton. Her bones disintegrate into dust, falling to the floor. A zephyr gets in the window and blows the dust out through the door. It spreads outside the freshly tilled soil where a bunch of plants suddenly flourish. In the blink of an eye, flowers with pitch-black petals and golden pistils sprout.

Evanita stares at the medallion in her hand. She thinks of following in her sister’s footsteps to heal people. She walks over to the door and looks at the flowers blackening the front yard. She finally becomes a healer.