“It looks like a machete, so?”
“It’s not a machete. Look at it. The blade itself is straight but is angled downward where it joins the handle. The blade starts out narrow, widens near the end and then comes to a point. My father has one of those, it’s a bolo.”
“What does that tell you?” Yuri said.
“She’s a Filipina.”
“Where are they from?”
“The Philippine Islands. Back on Earth our neighbor, Sid Fajardo, was Filipino.”
“So they really are from one of the lost ethnicities.”
“Come on,” Colin said and started to walk.
They proceeded down a rocky path on a gently sloping hillside. It was well worn but Colin couldn’t figure out if it was warn down by animals or humans. Flowering tropical bushes flanked the path on either side.
“Were they a friendly people back on Earth?” Yuri said.
“They were some of the nicest people we knew. Always a smile and a pleasant word. If you get a chance, try to trade for one of their bolos, they’re much more useful than a machete. Much easier to handle, sort of an ergonomic design. There was a war against the Japanese. Americans fought them in the Philippines. The American soldiers used to dump their machetes and buy bolos from the locals.”
“Anything more I should look forward too?”
“I hope their cooking hasn’t changed. We went to Sid’s house a dozen times for some celebration, which was always with food. They’d get a live pig and slaughter it. The table was stacked with various dishes, pancit, tinolang manok with malunggay, dinuguan and lechon baboy. My father made me learn all the names.”
“Good heavens,” Yuri said. “You’re making my mouth water and I don’t even know what those dishes are. Is there anything they made you didn’t like?”
“Yes, I couldn’t eat balut.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t ask.”
As they came close, the woman turned with a look of concern. “Sino ang nan diyan?” she called.
“Mabuhay,” Colin called back.
The woman smiled. “Ooo?” she said in a higher pitch. “Sino ka?”
“What language?” Yuri whispered.
“Tagalog,” Colin whispered back then raised his voice. “Do you speak English?”
“Yes, speak English. Where you from?”
“We’re from a village called Pellan, a long way away.”
“Are you Thai or Causian?” she asked.
“Causian,” Colin replied.
“What’s that?” Yuri said.
“It’s how they say Caucasian, white guy.”
The woman’s expression dropped. “Uh… are you the Causians from over the mountain, Sangustins or Pentacosts?”
“No, another place” Colin said. “We just came from across the mountains but we have different ideas to those people. We believe the Earth is round, we came from above and could once fly like birds.”
The woman’s expression brightened. “Good, only this is not the Earth, this is another planet.”
Colin laughed. “And Pellan isn’t a village, it’s also another planet.”
“Ooo?” the woman said in amazement. “You are astronauts, space travelers? Can you see? Can you see with your eyes?”
“Yes we can,” Colin said. “We also have a treatment for the virus.”
“Our doctors have been trying for many, many years to find a cure for the virus that sent us blind. Being blind, it is very difficult to do anything scientific like that.”
“Thank heavens,” Yuri said. “We don’t have to go around pretending here.”
Colin shook his head. “Remember, we still have Farren with us. Pissed me off when Bye demanded he come too.”
“Damn,” Yuri said. “How can we lose him?”
“One of our party is Sangustin,” Colin said. “To us, you can say anything, but to him, choose your words carefully.”
“Yes, yes,” the woman said. “We have all been told of their strange ideas. My name is Marilou.”
“Colin and Yuri here,” Colin said. “What do you call this place?”
“This is Pinoy.”
“What other groups do you know of?”
“To the north are the Thais and the west are Vietnamese, beyond them are the Khmer. We talk and trade with all of them. There is a group of Khmer who have come to trade in our village right now. The only ones we don’t talk to are the Causians to the east across the mountains, the Sangustins.”
Colin smiled. “We now have four of the lost ethnic groups, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian. The Khmer, do they speak English?”
“They speak their own language. They also speak a language they call Francais, but we don’t know it.”
“Good, they speak French,” Colin said.
“Come, come,” Marilou said. “I’ll take you to Edward, our village head. His wife Minda is my best friend. We are sure to have feast for celebration.”
“Feast?” Colin’s face lit up. “Dinuguan, and pancit?”
“Yes, you like Filipino food?”
“Love it. All except balut.”
“I don’t like balut either,” Marilou said. “My daughter does. When she eats it, I make her go outside.”
“What the hell is balut?” Yuri said.
“I told you, don’t ask.”
* * *
“I really don’t think I should go into their village,” Farren said. “You three are skilled at meeting new people and protecting yourself from evil.”
Colin looked back and forth between Farren and Ken. They each held a handle of a handcart loaded with leather goods. Ken had a broad smile on his face and looked like he was busting with some sort of news.
“The one we met was very nice,” Colin said, “but I don’t want to push things.” He turned to Yuri. “You’ll have to stay with Farren. Just in case the Cambodians are still there I need Ken as he speaks French.”
“I knew you’d say that,” Yuri sighed. “Just so long as you get them to bring us some of that food you were talking about.”
“Will do,” Colin said then turned to Ken. “What are you grinning about?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Ken said and jerked his head in the direction of the path ahead.
“Ok,” Colin said then snapped his fingers and started to walk.
Ken rushed to catch up. “That finger snapping is annoying,” he whispered. “Where we come from it’s an insult.”
“So what’re you so excited about?” Colin said. “You looked like you were about to wet yourself.”
“It was an animal, Farren heard it first. It must be some sort of mutation because it looks so weird, cute but strange. When Farren said he heard something I stuck my head in the bushes and there they were, about six of the cute little things.”
“What did they look like?”
“Small with long tails, big head and ears and the hugest eyes I’ve ever seen on an animal that small. They have to be a mutation. They don’t look like any animal I know.”
Colin started to laugh. “They aren’t mutations. They’re from Earth. I can’t remember their names but they’re monkeys.”
* * *
Colin looked down the neat road at the rows of native huts. Their walls were made of dries reed woven into intricate patterns and the roofs were grass. He looked back to see Yuri and Farren a couple of hundred meters behind. “I’d like a chat with that headman Edward before Farren gets close. Make sure he got the message from Marilou as to what to say in front of him.”
“You mean what not to say,” Ken said. “A whole planet and we had to land in the dumb bunny region.”
“Don’t insult dumb bunnies,” Colin said. “All we can do is our best. It’ll be much easier to explain what’s going on in the universe to these people.”
A couple of dozen men and women stood at the entrance to the village obviously waiting for them. Colin could see Marilou standing next to a muscular man. By their positioning, he knew the man to be in a lead
ership position.
“Mabuhay,” Colin called when they came within earshot.
The crowd raised their arms above their heads and clapped their hands. “Mabuhay,” they called back. They repeated the action three times.
“What was that?” Ken said. “You know their language?”
“Just a couple of words,” Colin said. “It’s a salute used as a toast or cheer at parties. It’s also an expression used in welcoming guests and a way of showing hospitality. It means ‘long life’ similar to ‘Viva’ in Spanish and French.”
“And the clap?”
“They used to just raise their hands above their heads. I guess they added the clap because of the blindness.”
“Hey,” called the man at the center of the group. “Where you guys been? We been waiting for you six hundred years.”
“We’ve been looking,” Colin said. “But you’ve been hiding for six hundred years.”
“Maybe you get lost. Take wrong turn at Albuquerque like Bugs Bunny.”
“You know of Bugs Bunny?” Colin said.
“Yes, only entertainment videos we have left from Earth are cartoons. We don’t see them but we listen.”
“Is Causian man from across the mountains with you?” Marilou said.
“He’s a couple of hundred meters back with another of our people.”
“Good,” the man said. “From now on we not talk of eyesight, flying or other things they fear.” The man extended a hand and snapped his fingers. “I’m Edward, you are Colin, correct?”
“I’m Colin,” Colin said and shook Edwards hand.
A woman stepped forward from the crowd and stood next to Colin. She sniffed the air. “You are so tall,” she said. “You standing on a rock?”
“Excuse wife Minda,” Edward said. “She say what she think.”
“So do I,” Colin said.
Edward turned and started to walk. “Come,” he said. “We have hut for you. Will be celebration feast tomorrow midday. My brother and cousins are slaughtering pigs now. The women will cook in shifts all night and tomorrow morning.”
“Uh… We don’t want to be an inconvenience,” Colin said.
“No inconvenience,” Edward said. “Come, kain tayo, you eat with us.”
Ken grabbed Colin’s shoulder. “Control yourself Col. That’s only nineteen hours away.”
“That long?” Colin replied.
* * *
“Man,” Ken said as he rocked back and forth. “There isn’t a cubic millimeter of room left in my stomach.”
Colin reached for a bowl. “More tinolang manok?”
“Yes… uh… no… uh… Wait a minute,” Ken stood and wiped off the dust from the ground where he sat. “Maybe if I walk around I can push something down and fit more in.”
Colin looked across the food laden mat woven from reeds to where Edward sat. He was a well built man in his fifties, a working man with well callused hands.
He turned his head slightly and looked at Marilou out of the corner of his eye as he was accustomed to peeking at women without them knowing. He smiled to himself then looked at her directly. How would she know?
Marilou leaned forward and felt for a bowl of mango. “Am I beautiful?” she said.
“Uh… pardon?” Colin said.
“You were looking at me, am I beautiful?”
“How did you know I was looking at you?”
“I heard the cloths around your neck rustle, then by your breathing I knew which way your face was pointed. When I reached for some food your face moved to follow. I ask again, am I beautiful?”
“Yes, you are quite attractive.”
Marilou laughed. “You are a polite person. You would say that even if I was as ugly as a pineapple. I have sometimes wondered what I would look like to a person who could see with his eyes.”
“You are definitely not a pineapple,” Colin said.
“Then what do I look like?”
“Um… you are… uh…”
“Ooo?” Marilou said. “Lost for words? I am that beautiful?”
“Yes, and that’s my honest opinion.”
Marilou laughed. “I have a great complement. Your voice say you are sincere.”
“Colin,” Edward said. “I have voice record of one of our philosophers a hundred years ago. He say that people with sight judge sincerity with seeing expressions of the face and the language of the body. We must do it with tone of the voice and other things.”
“Yes, the Sangustins give away their feelings constantly because they’re not used to covering the emotional expressions of the face.”
“You are good with control of voice,” Marilou said.
“We’re worried that we’ll slip up with the Sangustins and turn them against us.”
“Are they so important?” Edward said. “They are only one of many groups here.”
“No, but our mission is to establish a liaison with as many people here as possible. How many colonists originally landed?”
“According to records there were eighty two thousand Filipinos. A few years after the virus struck there were only nineteen and a half thousand left. Only the ones with higher than average hearing, smell and other senses survived. The Khmer suffered worst, only twelve thousand survived. It was fortunate for us that the disease didn’t strike until three years after we arrived here. When our people went blind, many things had been built and the farms already established.”
“What happened with the Sangustins?”
“We have full records. Our ancestors recorded everything by voice. Fundamentalist Christian preachers took over. Our people saved lives first, then souls. They were more concerned with saving souls than lives. They change things. Rewrite Bible. Tell people eyesight is evil.”
“Voice recordings?” Colin said. “You can still play them?”
“We have only eleven recorders left out of hundreds. They still work, but not very well.”
“What about power? Do you have batteries?”
“We make them using the acids from fruit juices.”
“What about the Causians, didn’t they maintain some of their equipment?”
“The Fundamentalist Christian ministers declared all technology evil. They destroyed everything. As Bugs Bunny would say: ‘they are ultramaroons’.”
Colin frowned. “I hope you’re not basing your entire philosophy on Bugs Bunny.”
Edward laughed. “Hey, we are blind, not stupid. It is just that it is only entertainment we have from Earth culture.” Edward thought for a moment. “I would like to ask you. On some videos, there is cartoons with no voice, no speaking. It is just sounds. Explosions, thumps and the sound of ‘meep, meep’. What is that?”
Colin laughed. “I believe we’re going to have to get your people more videos. I don’t think your culture would be quite ready for ‘Gone with the Wind’ yet, but I’m sure we can come up with something.”
“We used to have Three Stooges, but a hundred years ago the computer chip became corrupt. Can you get?”
“The Three Stooges is almost entirely visual humor.”
“Add narration like the ones we had. Narrator said when one poked the other in the eyes or hit on head. We would love it. Visual would be in the mind.”
“Ok, I’ll ask my father to send his collection. He recorded about a dozen episodes from TV. We’ll work our way up from there.”
“We still like Bugs Bunny philosophy. He say: ‘Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive’.”
“Col?” Ken said and Colin turned to look. “What does this kid want?” A young boy was grabbing at Ken’s hand.
“Give him your hand,” Colin said.
Ken did it and the boy took it and touched the back of Ken’s hand to his forehead.
“What is he doing?”
“Mr Fajardo’s kids used to do that with my father. It’s a Filipino child’s show of respect for elders and visitors.”
“Hey man, that’s beautiful. I love this place. If i
t wasn’t for the virus, I’d come live here.”
“You are all very welcome,” Marilou said. “I can see you all doing well here, being very happy.”
“Say, what were those cute little monkeys with big eyes,” Ken said.
“You saw our tarsiers,” Edward said. “They are very good for us. They eat insects that would annoy us.”
“That’s their name, tarsiers,” Colin exclaimed. “Back on Earth they were an endangered species.”
“Not here,” Edward said. “They are everywhere, thousands of them.”
“We see them all the time,” Marilou said.
“Seeing? Colin said.
“It is a figure of speech.”
“Do those tarsiers make good pets?” Ken said. “Can we take a couple with us?”
“No,” Edward said. “We learn from our recordings that if they are moved from the place where they were born they get very upset and commit suicide by beating their heads against a tree or rock.”
“In that case we can’t do that,” Ken said as he sat. “Now for more adobo, or is there something else I haven’t tried yet?” he pointed. “What’s that?”
“Uh…” Colin said. “That’s the one thing in this spread I don’t think you’d go for. It’s dinuguan. Pork, spices and grains cooked in pig’s blood.”
“Bloodworst?” Ken said with excitement. “Remember, my great-grandmother was German. When I was little she used to make a sausage like that. I loved it.” He grabbed a wood spoon and dug into the bowl. “She used to say: ‘Don’t eat too much Kenny, don’t eat too much. It is very rich. You will be sick’, but I always ate too much.”
Colin laughed and turned to Marilou. “I’m curious. When you say you see, what does that mean to you?”
“I have feelings in my mind. Odd things that tell me stuff moves and where things will be and what will happen in the future.”
“In the future? You are clairvoyant? You are a…” Colin thought for a moment. “City jaw?” He slapped his knee. “That’s it.”
“What?” Ken said with a full mouth. “That thing Bye told you about the witches?”
“They misheard it,” Colin said. “It’s Siquijor, the island of witches. It was one of the Philippine Islands. People went there from all over to have spells cast and their futures told.”
Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3) Page 17