Tala

by Adelaide Schofield

  Tala’s last shred of patience snapped away. “Do not speak to me this way!” She yelled back. “I will leave.”

  The look in Kelsey’s eyes was fierce as she whirled around to face the woman she loved. “Yeah, go ahead and leave Tala,” she said. “So your crazy ass brother can come back in here and rape me.”

  “I told you Doneng will do nothing. I will handle it.”

  “There’s no handling these people.”

  “Again you say these people to me! We are garbage to you, Kelsey?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Lower than a dog?”

  “Which your mother offered to feed me by the way.”

  Tala rolled her eyes. “She was playing with you, Kelsey. My family does not eat dog. Now, Sneekers,” she tried to joke. “Well, he might make a tasty treat.”

  Kelsey failed to see the humor. “Not even remotely funny.”

  Defeated, Tala crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Kelsey’s waist. “I will not let anyone hurt you, Kelsey,” she assured, resting her head on Kelsey’s shoulder. “Doneng will not hurt you. I promise you that.”

  Kelsey wanted to believe Tala but she had never been more afraid in her life.

  Chapter 16

  “What have you done?” Cristano screamed at his son in Tagalog. He slapped Doneng on the side of the head and threw him into a chair.

  “It is unnatural!” Doneng screamed back. The more he thought about what Tala and Kelsey had been doing, the more disgusted he became.

  “That is your opinion!”

  Dalisay grabbed Cristano’s arm before he could hit Doneng again. She had been horrified when she’d received Tala’s call and heard what Doneng had done, but she could not allow her husband to beat their only son.

  “Do not strike him again!” She commanded.

  “Your son should be in jail for what he has done!” Cristano yelled.

  “If he is only my son, then let me handle him.”

  Sensing Dalisay was on his side, Doneng went into a rapid-fire explanation. “Your daughter is a whore, mama,” he said, picturing Tala’s mouth covering Kelsey’s breast. He fought the erection that threatened to rise in his pants. “She was on top of that woman doing disgusting things, shaming our family—“

  “Ta mana!” Dalisay’s heart grew sick at her son’s words and she smashed a hand against his cheek so hard, the sting of the blow resonated throughout his entire face. “You do not speak of your sister this way!”

  “She is a whore!” He yelled again.

  Dalisay’s eyes turned as cold as her son’s. “Cristano, you may beat him now.”

  Cristano grabbed Doneng by the neck just as Ligaya entered the house.

  “What is going on? There is screaming from outside.”

  “Go to your room, Ligaya,” Dalisay said. “This is not for your eyes.”

  “Our parents are upset because I caught Tala doing unnatural things with that woman,” Doneng offered, as if he’d done nothing wrong.

  “Caught her?” Cristano yelled. He turned to his youngest daughter and told the horrific truth. “Doneng paid a man to let him into their hotel room while they slept. Your brother then watched them until they woke up and were….affectionate with each other.”

  “Holy shit!” Ligaya said, using the American slang she often heard on TV.

  “Tala had her mouth on that woman’s breast!” Doneng yelled. “She was sucking it like a—“

  Cristano hauled off and struck his son again. “And so you threaten them? Your own sister and her…friend?”

  “Friend!” Doneng spat the word back at his father. “They are both whores and God will make them pay.”

  “I fear God will make you pay, kuya,” Ligaya said, reaching for a piece of candy from the bowl on the end table. “God cares more about what you have done than what they do.”

  “Ligaya, go to your room,” Dalisay commanded. “Papa and I must decide what to do from here.”

  Cristano rubbed his chin in thought. There was a way he could handle this. It was cruel, but if executed properly, it could prevent his son from ever acting out in such a manner again. He considered his idea for a moment longer then nodded to himself. “Get up. We are going outside,” he said to Doneng.

  Doneng and Dalisay followed Cristano to the yard. Cristano opened the door to a giant pen and called the dog out. He turned to his only son.

  “Get in the cage.”

  “Mama,” Doneng pleaded, his eyes wild with fear.

  Dalisay turned her head. She could not bear to watch this, but she would not stop it either. Doneng needed to be punished for what he’d done.

  “Mama, please,” Doneng begged. He faced the cage and fear turned up in his heart for the first time in his life.

  Cristano shoved Doneng forward. He pushed him into the dog cage and locked the door. “The dog will stay in the house now and you will stay in the cage,” he said. “You wish to act like animal? You will be treated as one.”

  Doneng crawled to a dry corner of the cage and curled up on the ground like a dog. Tala and Kelsey would pay for this.

  Dalisay had tears in her eyes as her husband took her hand and guided her back to the house.

  **********

  “Doneng has been punished,” Tala said, hanging up from her mother.

  “How?” Kelsey asked. She couldn’t imagine what kind of punishment could make up for Doneng breaking into their room. Never mind the other thing he had done!

  “I do not know,” Tala admitted. “But mama has asked us to come to the house for dinner.”

  Kelsey swallowed back her terror. “Is Doneng there?”

  “I do not know. But I tell you, my love, you are safe. You must trust me on this.”

  “Tala, if he even so much as looks at me I’m out of there,” Kelsey warned.

  Tala nodded. “I know, Kelsey. And I would walk out with you. But it will be okay.”

  When they arrived at the house three hours later, Mia was the first to rush over to greet them.

  “I am so sorry this has happened, Kelsey,” she said. “Doneng has shamed us all by his actions.” She bowed her head and Kelsey gently touched her shoulder. This was not Mia’s responsibility to take on.

  “Thank you, Mia, but you have nothing to be ashamed of. This wasn’t your doing.”

  “Kuya Doneng is asshole,” Ligaya offered, taking Kelsey’s hand and leading her into a small living room with two couches and a giant TV. “But not to worry, he has been punished wisely.”

  “Where is he?” Tala asked. She couldn’t help being concerned about her younger brother.

  Ligaya giggled. “Oh, let us save that treat for later.”

  Over dinner Kelsey remained as silent as Cristano while Tala told her family of her plans.

  “I will go back to America with Kelsey in three days time,” she announced.

  “That is unacceptable, anak.” Dalisay threw another large scoop of chicken adobo onto Kelsey’s plate and her eyes dared her to eat it. “You must stay until the divorce is finalized.”

  “Do not worry, mama,” Tala assured, knowing Dalisay cared about one thing and one thing only. “I will send you some of the money from the sale of the house.”

  Dalisay drew her short body up to its full length. “I care about more than just money, Tala. You will see this when you see what I have allowed to happen to Doneng.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “Later,” Cristano said. He scratched the top of his balding head with one hand and scooped up a large mound of rice with the other.

  A wide-chested dog entered the room and nudged Kelsey’s leg. She smiled for the first time all day. “Hi there, big man. Where did you come from?” She bent over to nuzzle his big flat head and buried her face in the stinky fur of his neck. “I could just eat you up!”

  “And you will,” Ligaya said. “That is dessert.”

  Kelsey’s face went pale and the whole table laughed.

  “Oh Kelsey,�
�� Dalisay said. “I did not think you could get any whiter but you have managed it!”

  Cristano smirked around another handful of rice. “That is our dog, Bruno.”

  “We do not eat the big ones,” Tala joked, patting Bruno’s giant head. “Just the little ones.”

  The table continued to laugh and Tala gave Kelsey a playful shove. “We are being silly with you, Kelsey. I told you we do not eat dog.”

  “I have heard it tastes like chicken.” Dalisay cast a mischievous glance at Kelsey’s plate and smirked.

  Kelsey looked down at the dish of food before her and felt the vomit rise to the back of her throat.

  “Oh no, she is going to be sick!” Tala said. “Okay, everyone stop. Kelsey, it is chicken. You can see that it is chicken.” She plucked a chicken wing from Kelsey’s plate and shoved it under her face. “See?”

  Kelsey nodded.

  “Mia, get her some filtered water,” Dalisay said, still smirking. Americans were too funny.

  “Did you not just very recently tell me you will try any food once?” Tala questioned.

  Kelsey gave a small chuckle. “Let’s revise that to almost any food then. Come here, Bruno. You’ll be my best friend today.”

  Ligaya snickered. “In more ways than you know.”

  Doneng had spent all day in the cage under the hot Filipino sun. Twice Ligaya had spotted him trying to seek shelter under the flat boards of wood that served as a small roof at the left side of the cage.

  Doneng deserved it. He had tried to touch Ligaya once, when she was a child. She’d screamed so loud Dalisay had come running and Doneng had never tried a stunt like that again. As far as Ligaya was concerned, the cage was the least of what Doneng deserved. Her brother was a sexual deviant and she was perhaps the only person who knew it.

  After dinner, the women rose to help the maid clear the table. Kelsey didn’t know where anything went so she wandered around carrying the same two dishes until Dalisay finally stopped her.

  “Give it to me, Kelsey. Or I am afraid you will carry it home.”

  Smiling, Kelsey handed Dalisay the plates. Dalisay had had some time to consider her situation, and with the help of Cristano, came to the realization that she could do without Tala’s monthly contribution if it meant Tala would finally be happy in life; and Dalisay could see that Kelsey made Tala happy. It was a lot to accept all at once, but she was working on it.

  “You have had coconut wine?” Cristano asked, bringing a large clear bottle of what looked like homemade moonshine to the table.

  “I’ve never had it,” Kelsey said. The bottle looked large and foreboding.

  “Ah, you will like this.”

  “You’ll need it too,” Mia said.

  Tala glanced from her sister to her father. “What is going on? There is some mystery about Doneng that mama is bothered by but the rest of you seem to find humorous.”

  Cristano shrugged like an old man whose tired shoulders had seen better shrugs. “He is being punished.”

  “How?” Tala questioned.

  “Try some wine, Kelsey,” Cristano said, pouring a small glass of clear liquid and setting it on the table in front of her.

  Kelsey sipped the drink and felt it scorch her throat.

  “It is good?” Cristano asked.

  “Very good.” She coughed and the others laughed.

  “It is strong, Kelsey,” Tala warned. “Do not let papa give you too much.”

  Cristano waved away her words. “It is only the taste that is strong.” He poured Kelsey two more glasses of wine. After she drank them both, he nodded and said, “I think she is ready now. Tala, Kelsey—you must come to the window now.”

  Ligaya giggled behind her hands as Cristano pushed back the drapes. Squinting against the setting sun, Kelsey looked across the yard. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for but when her eyes landed upon Doneng, lying inside a dirty cage, she gasped.

  “Papa, that is inhumane!” Tala cried.

  Cristano was unaffected by his daughter’s shock. “He wishes to act like animal, he will live like animal. When he learns to act like human again, he will come inside.”

  Kelsey felt dizzy. She had no idea when she first came to Manila that she would be stepping into an alternate universe that would challenge her ideas of good and bad, right and wrong. Everything she saw in Tala’s Manila felt tainted somehow, and she instinctively knew this trip would change her forever. The sickness rose in her throat again but she swallowed it back.

  “How long will he stay there?” she asked, barely able to get the words out.

  “I think three days will be good.”

  “Is he eating?”

  Cristano laughed. “Are you worried about him, Kelsey? You have not forgotten already what my son did to you?”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” she said, quietly. She would never forget anything about this trip.

  “Papa, you must bring him inside,” Tala said.

  Cristano shook his head. “I will not. But you may go feed him if you like.”

  Tala instantly turned on her heel. She went to the stove and scooped a healthy portion of adobo and rice onto a plate.

  “This is wrong,” she said, as she shoved the back door open with her hip and went outside to feed her brother.

  Kelsey didn’t know that it was all that wrong. If she had called the police, they would have put Doneng in a cage. Was it maybe better that it was his father who did it instead?

  She shook her head, confused by her own thoughts. This was wrong. It had to be. People couldn’t just go around putting their children in cages. Right?

  Being in Manila was confusing her thoughts and she couldn’t wait to leave.

  “I understand this is not your way, Kelsey,” Cristano said in a consoling tone. “But if I do not correct my son this time, what will he do that is worse?”

  Probably rape someone, Kelsey thought. She kept the thought to herself and only nodded.

  Tala came back through the door and slammed it behind her. “Let him stay there then!” she said.

  “What happened?” Kelsey asked.

  Tala shook her head. She could not repeat the horrible things her brother had said to her. “It is just better for all of us right now.”

  Dalisay went to the window and looked out at her son with tears in her eyes. She suspected there was something more wrong with him than any of them knew and it tore her heart to pieces.

  Chapter 17

  Tala was worried about Kelsey. She had barely eaten or spoken in the two days since they saw Doneng in the cage. She had not told Kelsey about the words Doneng had spoken to her because they had truly been terrifying.

  Something had happened to her brother. He had always been a little strange, but Tala could see that something in his brain had snapped away like it had been waiting to do so for a very long time. He had warned her of God’s punishments on the impure and how He sometimes selected humans to dole out those punishments.

  “I am one of the chosen ones, ate,” he’d said, with a wild look in his eye. “You will see.”

  Tala shuddered at the memory and focused her attention back on Kelsey who stood on the balcony looking out over Manila Bay as if it were speaking secrets to her she didn’t want to have to hear.

  “Come inside,” Tala said, stepping onto the balcony and tossing a light blanket across Kelsey’s shoulders. “It is getting cold now.”

  Kelsey gave a weak smile. “It’s seventy-five degrees.”

  “Please my Kelsey? You are worrying me.”

  Kelsey followed Tala back into the room and locked the balcony door behind them. She just couldn’t shake the frightened feeling in the pit of her gut. Something was telling her they needed to leave Manila as soon as possible and tomorrow’s flight couldn’t come fast enough.

  They ate dinner at a restaurant downstairs in mutual silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Kelsey was consumed with the bad feeling she couldn’t seem to let go of, and Tala was consumed wi
th her worry for Kelsey. At eleven, they went to bed.

  “We will leave tomorrow afternoon,” Tala said, placing a protective arm across the woman she loved. “Won’t you be happy to see Sneekers?”

  Kelsey nodded. “Goodnight Tala.”

  Tala curled closer to Kelsey and quickly fell asleep.

  Kelsey’s dreams were foreboding. She ran frantically through the rooms of an unfamiliar house looking for Tala. Someone was chasing them and she had lost Tala in the madness.

  The house switched into a hotel that Kelsey recognized as the Sofitel, and she ran up and down the hallways, checking room after room and calling Tala’s name. In the lobby, she spotted Tala from a distance. There was a sad smile on her face and a large clump of blood in her hair. Kelsey ran to her but the lobby started ringing so loudly she was yanked away, back into consciousness.

  Her eyes opened in time to see Tala answering the phone.

  “Mama? It is one am.”

  “Anak, you must leave!” Dalisay all but screamed into the phone. “It is Doneng. Papa let him out of the cage and he has gone crazy. He has taken Papa’s gun!”

  Tala bolted upright in bed. “Kelsey, pack your bags now!”

  “What’s going on?” Kelsey said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “Pack. We must go!”

  “He is coming for you, anak.,” Dalisay cried. “Please, leave there right away. He believes God wants him to kill you and Kelsey both.” Dalisay was sobbing now. Tala could hear the choked sounds of her mother’s anguish across the phone connection. “We have called the police, but please anak, please leave the hotel at once!”

  Someone pounded on the door and Tala began to cry. “Mama, I think he is here!”

  “Mees Daniels!” A woman’s voice called from the hallway. “Mees Daniels!”

  “It’s okay,” Kelsey said, looking through the peephole. “It’s one of the women from the front desk.” She opened the door and the woman quickly stepped inside.

  “Mees Daniels, the police have surrounded the hotel. We have a car waiting for you outside. Please, do not worry about your things. We will have them sent to you. You will just need your passports and identification for your flights.”