Pasidaan

Sinless Prize

It was Wednesday on the 1st day of May. An amethyst-purple hue invades the late summer skies. The afternoon was shockingly humid and the heat would cause an illusion of wavering images. Larena town in Siquijor is busy for tomorrow's fiesta. Everyone is making a prodigious preparation. Outside the house, Nay Pransing swept the yard to remove dead leaves to gather in a heap and burn. Thanks to some shades of the trees, the sun does not directly touch her skin. Although she is already in her fifties, her vivacious dedication to our family keeps her presence on all corners of the house. However, her personality always brings me discomfort. She is a woman of silence that I even heard her voice maybe only for a couple of times. She never talked to anybody in the house and I sometimes find her staring into oblivion with dead gaze. Under the sun, her smokey-grey hair illuminated and a soft wind suddenly brushed her curly hair to her cheek; pale and wrinkled. For years of serving our family, I have never built a close relationship with her. Yet it was never a big deal to me.

In our sala, Mama Imelda filled the place with a bunch of daisies, orchids, and daffodils on every corner.

"Look how lovely these flowers are! Oh it blooms beautifully just like prospered we are as a family..." She gracefully uttered in her saccharine voice.

Mama Imelda is a school teacher and she is extremely fond of nature. Her obsession with flowers is the proof of the extravagant landscape in the yard. Our house is ancestral with a golden stone that seemingly stood like an antique ornament in the middle of the garden. Its huge lounge and wide porch can cater big number of people, so plenty of visitors are expected tomorrow.

My cousin Toning is busy wiping our dusty old family portrait hanging just beside the old staircase while his wife Salome and Tiya Martha are in the kitchen preparing food. As well as my cousins Ising and Flora decorated the ceiling of the living room with paper streamers and lanterns of curious design. From the second floor, my eight-year old brother Eloy together with my cousins Angelito and Patyong (who's younger than him) was running inside the house, back and forth the stairs. Their laughter and screams echoed through the entire house.

"Alright guys time for break... Kids! Sus maryosep! Can you stop running? You might fall down there! Who likes sandwiches? ..."As Salome is setting the food into the table; Tiya Martha followed her to the sala with a pitcher of juice.

"Sandwiches! Yaaaay!" squealed the kids while cheerfully ran towards the sala.

"Fausta dear, you might want to try Salome's palabok" Mama Imelda beckons to me.

"Oh Fau, Nay Pransing is outside, I bet she needs some refreshments. Can you fetch her so she can join us?" Upon Tiya Martha's request, I put the bunch of carnation on the porch and jogged towards the yard.

"Nay! Tiya Martha's calling you for a break. They're having a meryenda inside."

However, Nay Pransing was unresponsive. She continued sweeping the dead leaves as if hearing nothing.

"Nay?"

I tapped her shoulder and in an instant, her sunken, black eyes suddenly meet mine. We were just inches away and I jolted as a cold wind blew giving me goose bumps. Slowly, her thin lips parted, and a vile grin crept across her decayed face, revealing a set of rotten fangs and black gums.

"You must be careful Fausta, he is coming for you."