I moved closer to Dad and held his hand, loving the happiness that briefly crossed his face as he recalled that day. As our hands enclosed each other, a jolt of static electricity traveled through me. When I opened my eyes, I was there, in the room with my parents—a younger version of them from the day they first met. I was standing in the room but also very much aware I wasn’t part of the scene.
“Karina? What’s wrong, honey?” Dad said, bringing me back to the present.
“I can see you and Mama. I can see you guys on that day, that memory you have in your head.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. When I held your hand, it’s like the memory went through me. I want to try again, Dad, I want to see.”
He took my hands and held it between his. “What do I need to do?”
“I think you just think of that day, remember your first meeting.”
Dad closed his eyes and I felt the jolt again, taking me to that day. I could see the great resemblance between me and Mama. She was so beautiful.
“How long have you worked as a hairdresser?” Dad asked.
“Long enough.”
“Are you from Manila?”
“No.”
“Where are you from?”
“Central Philippines.”
“Which island? Visayas?”
“Around there.”
“Are you living with your family?”
“No.”
“Husband and kids?”
“No”
“Boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Girlfriend?”
Mama stopped what she was doing and looked at him, raising one eyebrow and shaking her head, exasperated by his barrage of questions. It didn’t discourage him though. He was determined to get more information out of her.
“Did you always want to be a hairdresser?”
“No.”
“What did you want to do for a living then?”
“A serial killer,” she deadpanned.
“Cool, you’d be great at it since you’re very well equipped already. Those scissors are sharp.”
Even more silence. Not even a smirk. I applauded Dad’s patience.
“So how do you know the bride and groom?” Dad tried again.
“She comes to the salon regularly.”
“Are you friends with both of them?”
“No.”
“Just the bride then?”
“No.”
“You look like you have mixed heritage. Are you half-Spanish or half-Chinese or something?”
“No.”
“Have you traveled a lot?”
“No.”
“I’m from Australia. It’s a great country, you should visit it some time.”
“I’m done,” she said, turning the chair so Dad could see the haircut. He looked in the mirror and froze. Mama had turned his longish hair into a mullet. She must have used her powers because I was sure Dad’s hair wasn’t long enough for a mullet.
“It suits you,” she said.
Dad laughed so hard there were tears in his eyes. “I guess I deserved that,” he said. “I apologize if I made you uncomfortable. I promise to shut up if you fix my hair before the wedding.”
Mama paused and thought about it. “If one more word comes out of you, I will stop what I’m doing and I won’t fix your hair until after the reception.”
“I promise,” Dad said, putting his hand on his chest.
She started working on Dad’s hair again, cutting up the mullet.
But Dad just couldn’t resist it. “I’m not trying to crack on to you or anything. I just really want to get to know you.”
Mama stopped what she was doing and started putting away her tools. Dad quickly realized she was dead serious about the “no talking” rule.
“I’m sorry, I promise I’ll shut up, please,” he pleaded but it was too late. She had already packed her things and was ready to head out the door. She turned around and gave him a card.
“This is where I work, you can drop by anytime and I’ll fix your hair for free. But for today, you’ll have to go to the wedding with half a mullet,” she said before slamming the door behind her.
Go, Mama.
Dad just sat there, stunned and staring at the door. He turned around to look at himself in the mirror and was horrified to see he only had half a mullet. It looked even worse than a full mullet.
I let go of Dad’s hands and returned to the present, laughing so hard, tears started coming out of my eyes. I looked at Dad and he was laughing too, a real belly laugh that I hadn’t heard in a long time.
After the laughter tapered off, I watched Dad as he wiped his face.
“What did you do after that?”
“I couldn’t find any scissors and so I was forced to go through the entire wedding ceremony and reception with that haircut. I had to tell everyone I had an accident with my head shaver in the hotel room. As it was a wedding, there were heaps of photos of the event. Later on after we got married, your mom contacted my old friend and asked for a copy of one of the wedding photos with me in it—half a mullet and everything. We still have the photo somewhere.”
“Mama was a tough nut. She was amazing.”
“I realized very quickly that she was very different from any of the women I’ve ever met, which meant I had absolutely no idea how to ask her out. I presumed none of my old tactics would work on her. I went to her workplace the very next day and begged for her to fix my hair. She made me wait for an hour before giving me a proper haircut and I didn’t say a word the entire time she was doing it. After she finished, I went to the cashier and paid for the service, even though she said it was free. I turned around and gave her my card and said thank you before I left.”
“That’s it? You didn’t ask her out?”
“It took me a while to have the courage to talk to her again. I had to go back to the salon several times for my haircut. I dyed my hair so many times in so many shades before I finally asked her out. By then, I think I’ve worn her out with my almost weekly ‘haircut’ trips, my incessant questions, and my blabbering. It took some time before she finally warmed up to me, and even longer to finally become my girlfriend. It was extremely hard work. She was always very private about her personal life even after we started going out.”
“Even her workmates at the salon knew very little about her. She kept to herself and only joined gatherings every now and then. Her workmates told me she’s had so many men pursue her but they all eventually gave up—some much quicker than others. I didn’t know why she went out with me. I only found out about it later on when I finally asked her why she picked me out of all the men who wanted her. She said she could see my heart and that my intentions were pure. I thought it was a euphemism for women’s intuition. Now I realize she really did have the ability to read people.”
Seeing my parents together so vividly warmed my heart and strengthened my resolve to help them be together again. No matter what the cost. I had been reading about earth-shattering love stories in books but I never thought about looking at my own parents’ story.
“I know everything is going to be fine, Dad. I know it.”
I saw him smile, briefly, but I was glad it wasn’t one of his half smiles. “What I did in the garage …”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was just a surprise. I’ve known you’re amazing since the day you were born, but to see what you’ve been doing, it’s just beyond words.”
“Are you scared?”
“Yes, but seeing what you’ve been doing has helped, I must admit. I know the training will help you with whatever it is that’s out there. I want to know that you can defend yourself even when I’m not there. I would have been okay with karate lessons but this is good, too,” he smiled, a twinkle in his eyes. There were moments when I caught the old dad, the joker who wouldn’t let up, who always found the fun things in life and always perked me up. I cherished the rare moments when I would see that Dad a
gain.
“So you’re okay with it?”
“Do what you need to do. Don’t worry about me. Listen to your Lolo. Although he makes me uncomfortable sometimes, I know he only has your best interest at heart.”
“Speaking of Lolo, I better go find him and apologize.”
“Why?”
“I think I might have offended him a bit with a small rant.” I got up to leave when I heard Dad standing up, hugging me from behind, kissing the top of my head like he used to.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too, Dad.”
I headed to the kitchen to find Lolo when I heard voices coming from the living room. Visitors? That was odd. We never had visitors. I walked into the room to find the most bizarre vision I had ever seen. Lolo was conversing like old friends with several creatures. Ones that I read about for a long time in popular Filipino folklore.
The booming voice was coming from a kapre—a huge hairy man, over ten feet tall, sitting on the floor, trying to be comfortable next to the floor lamp. He was wearing clothes made from animal skin, I think, and trying hard not to hit the ceiling. He was holding a gigantic cigar in one hand, fidgeting like he wanted to light it. Sitting beside the giant was a duwende—a small man, probably less than two feet tall, wearing clothing made of leaves that glimmer under the living room light.
I moved closer to the group to see another creature sitting on the couch with Lolo. A tikbalang, unmistakable as there was nothing like it in books. He was tall, maybe seven feet, very hairy that you could hardly see any skin and only had a loincloth on. But although his body was that of a human, his head was that of a horse—like a reverse centaur. Then finally, there was a couple sitting across Lolo. A beautiful woman dressed in white with the longest hair I had ever seen. Her skin shimmered like it was encrusted with millions of tiny diamonds, with a tinge of blue and green hues. I could see patches of scales on her back. A sirena, or mermaid, as others knew them. Next to her was a syokoy. They always traveled together, according to tales. He protected her when she had a tail in the water and when she had feet on land. Instead of skin, the syokoy was covered in scales. His face resembled a fish, complete with gills. I was curious as to how he was breathing above water.
It looked like a meeting of leaders from a comic convention. The room fell silent the moment they sensed me. It was a surreal experience staring into the faces of creatures so familiar to me but also so foreign. They were from my books and they had come alive.
“Karina, come and sit with us. Let me introduce you to my old friends,” Lolo said, beckoning me to sit close to him.
“’Why are they here?”
“I called them here after …” he paused, referring to my earlier rant.
“Lolo, about what I said, I’m so sorry,” I started to say but he cut me off.
“Don’t worry about that. You were right. That’s why I called them here. We are finished watching. It’s time to act,” he squeezed my shoulder, and turned to the sitting giant smoking a cigar.
“This is Kamudo, the leader of the Kapre tribe. Here is Pili, the leader of the Duwende tribe,” referring to the tiny man beside Kamudo.
“This is Gulat, the leader of the Tikbalang tribe,” he said, pointing to the horse head. “And these are Serra and Yukoy, the leaders of the Serena and Syokoy tribe, the kingdom underwater. I invited them all here tonight for a crucial meeting and to meet you.”
I moved closer to Lolo, not uttering a word. Things just became very real for me. My home was actually hosting a conference of leaders from creatures of a parallel land. Was I expected to step up to this? What did they want from me? Should I make a welcome speech or something? I was very much aware of how plain I looked beside them, sweaty in my training clothes. Before I could say anything, Serra, the beautiful underwater leader, spoke.
“We are here to meet you, Karina, that is it. We don’t expect anything. We are just very eager to finally see the heir of Hari Magatu.”
“Serra is a reader, she can sense emotions and read thoughts. I haven’t taught you how to block that yet but I will soon,” Lolo said.
“Welcome to my house. Do you guys want anything to eat? I mean, not that I know what you eat.”
“No, we’ve eaten. Thank you so much for the offer,” the kapre said.
“We can speak openly in front of Karina, so please continue,” Lolo said.
“As I was saying,” Pili said, “we are sensing a stirring in the kingdom. The clans are getting scared of the uncertainty of our future. There are talks of factions, tribes trying to get as much supporters as possible to try and take on the throne. The manananggal clan is even starting to consider looking for Maita’s heir.”
“The manananggal?” I asked.
“Those creatures are not like the one you saw outside the window, Karina. These are the original manananggal, untouched by the gruesome transformation of the one you saw,” Serra said, reading my thoughts again. “They do not like how Marila turned out but they were also not happy about banishing Maita to the human world. Although they’ve been fairly loyal to the crown all these years, they still remember the pain and would not hesitate to follow a manananggal who wants to overthrow the king.”
“So what can we do?” I asked.
They looked at each other, preparing to announce what I could only gather as bad news. I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable at the silence.
“We only have five weeks before your training ends,” Serra paused, hesitating to say the next line. “But because of the uncertainty in Engkantasia, we will need to know your decision before this week ends. We need to send out a message to appease the kingdom before chaos ensues. Your great-great-grandparents placed those rules to protect both worlds. We’re afraid that if word gets out that there is no heir, some might break the rules, perhaps even cross the boundary between the two worlds.”
“So I have a week to decide,” I said quietly. A giant rock sat heavily inside me. “But I am half-human. Wouldn’t that fact cause even more chaos in Engkantasia? Will they respect me if I decide to take on the throne?”
“Just because you’re half-human doesn’t mean you’re less powerful. You have the essence of pure engkangto royalty coursing through your veins. That is more than enough reason to earn the tribes’ respect,” Serra said.
“But what about Mama?”
Again, more silence and hesitation. Even with all their powers, it was hard for them to find the strength to say the words they wanted to say. Mama was collateral damage. Finding her wasn’t as important as saving Engkantasia. I wondered if these creatures still considered her as one of them given how long she had been away from their world. I looked at Serra, hoping she was reading my thoughts. Finally, Lolo answered my question.
“Your mother was most likely taken by forces from Engkantasia.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, not wanting to believe him.
“If she were just taken by humans and hidden in your world, I would have been able to sense her. I would know if she was dead or alive. But right now, none of us can sense your mother, which means she has been cloaked and only our people can do that.”
“So she’s still alive then!”
“There is a chance but …” Lolo paused.
“But what?”
Lolo looked around the room, but no one wanted to meet his eyes. They, too, were thinking the same thing. Mama might already be dead.
“She’s been gone for a long time, Karina,” Serra started. “None of us can assure you that Marie is still alive. If they’ve cloaked her, then …”
“Then even her body will be untraceable to us.”
It hit me then, so clearly and so vividly. Mama was not a priority for these leaders. None of them believed she was still alive. None of them had my connection to her. Even if I tried to convince them she was not dead, their main focus would still be saving the two worlds. The need of the many outweighed the need of one.
I was on my own. I knew I sho
uld be more focused on the bigger picture, on the catastrophe that was upon us. But my family was my world. They had always been my world. What kind of a daughter would I be if I let go that easily? And what about Dad? I couldn’t just give up. Not for his sake.
Without a word, I stood and went to my room, locking the door behind me—not that it would stop anyone. Lolo could easily open it, and Dad had spare key. But somehow, that one act of defiance gave me some control over my life just when it seemed to be spiraling out of control. I sat in the dark for some time, not moving, just staring into space, trying to stop myself from thinking. No one came after me, not that I was expecting them to. Everyone in that room knew the weight of the decision I had to make.
Five weeks. Something was going to end in five weeks. It was either my life in this world or an entire civilization. I felt my cheeks getting wet but I didn’t remember crying.
Something clicked in my mind and before I knew it, I was off the bed and packing clothes in my overnight bag. I changed to my jeans and shirt, and stuffed everything I could think of in the bag. I opened the window as quietly as I could. I had to get out. I needed to be somewhere else. I ran to the bus stop with my bag and took out my mobile phone. There was only one person I could think of who was detached from all this madness.
Chapter Thirteen
MAMA’S DIY
ENGKANTASIA BOOK
Tikbalang
The tikbalang is a creature that lurks in the mountains and forests. It is very tall, bony, with longer limbs than normal that when it squats, its knees reach above its head. It has the head and feet of a horse.
The tikbalang is mild by nature but is also a great trickster. It confuses its victims so that they keep returning to the same spot no matter how far they go or where they turn.
The tikbalangs are the brave guardians of Engkantasia. These creatures are found standing at the foot of large trees, guarding the entrance to the engkanto’s territory.
C ome in, Karina, I’ll take care of the cab fare, don’t worry,” he said, looking fabulous even in his pajamas.
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