When the Elephants Dance (19 page)

I shoved him away.

“Roman, I know it is hard. I know Papa isn’t much of a father.”

“What do you know?” I shouted. “You are his pet. But not for long. The minute I get the amulet, that will all change.” I clamped my mouth shut, furious at Roger for luring me into spilling my secret. I kicked at the water.

“The amulet is real, too? Grandfather said—but I didn’t—does Mang Minno …? Will the fish …? The ones we …? At the store?” His words were a jumble of dead-end questions.

“Go home, Roger, or you may lose something more than your words.” I gave him the designated warning without meaning to, and he gave me the desired response of the innocent.

“I will stay.”

He had answered correctly, like a pig to the roasting pit. It set a tingling in my spine. “Here, I will show you the way out.” I pulled at his shirt, and he let me lead him, but a large shadow of a bird loomed over us. It was then I felt his presence.

“So you have brought Roger.” Mang Minno stood before us.

Roger would have fallen backward had I not been holding on to his shirt.

“Roger, it is all right, you’re okay,” I soothed him. He was hyperventilating, his intake of breath tripping over his fear. “Rog!” I shook him. “I am sorry, Mang Minno, Roger is not the person I have selected to witness my baptism. I did not invite him. I shall find someone before the designated time.”

“The time is already at hand. He has come willingly. He shall do.”

A small moan escaped Roger. He was watching Mang Minno like a man who knew. And funny, Mang Minno seemed to look at Roger with the same respect.

“I brought the book.” I pulled out my Bible from my shoulder bag. Mang Minno had requested that I bring it for the ceremony. It was a gift during my first Communion. It had come along with a set of pewter rosary beads, which I had stuffed into my pocket.

“Roger, are you ready to see your brother confirmed?” Mang Minno chuckled. He mistook Roger’s swallow as a nod.

“Then let us hurry to the cliff. We must be standing there as the world dims for the celebration of the dead. We will be at the pinnacle of darkness.”

Roger was made nearly comatose by those words.

“Come, it is just a figure of speech. He’s really a nice man,” I whispered, pulling my brother along.

Once we were on the cliff, I expected the ceremony to go along in much the same way my confirmation had. Probably I would lay my hand on the Bible,
promise to not disclose any secrets, and confess my loyalty to the fishes, and then Mang Minno would step down from his spot and I would be given the
antíng-antíng
. I waited with anticipation, my hands in my pockets.

The air was electric, as before a strong storm, when the earth waits to be cleansed. Suddenly it began to dim. The sky rumbled, and it turned dark purple, close to black.

Mang Minno raised his fist. “Now, now is the time. My soul is weary. I can no longer carry the weight of my
antíng-antíng
.” He inclined his head to the tribunal, hovering just at his feet. “The tribunal has accepted me into their school.” He spoke in a booming voice that reverberated like thunderclouds. He was Moses shouting the Ten Commandments to the people. You see, even after all that I knew, I still thought of him as good. “Roman Flores, do you accept the responsibility of becoming a servant to Agraria and to his fish, and yet king to them all?”

“Yes.” I nodded solemnly.

“Do you swear to serve only one master?”

“Yes,” I said, wondering curiously at his phrasing.

“Where is your Bible?”

I handed it to him, raising my hand in expectation.

“Do you refute these teachings?” He lifted the book above his head, and I saw that the hand that held the book was shaking with pain.

“Sir?” I frowned, unsure if I had heard correctly.

He gave me back the book. “Throw it into the water. Shout your promise to your new master.”

“Roman,” Roger gasped.

I did not throw the book but gritted my teeth and repeated the promise. The water split open and formed an arc around the cliff. It rose over the large rock, and we were again submerged to our waists. I saw a large mass looming beyond the horizon, a hundred meters away.

“Come, master.” Mang Minno took out his fishbone, and instead of blowing into it, he held it to his lips, whispering feverishly in some language I did not recognize. But the dark mass remained in the distance. “Master,” he called, “why do you hesitate?” Then Mang Minno shouted in anger, and I took a step back. His eyes were a brilliant violet, yet they appeared shallow, as if Mang Minno were not present at all, but his soul trapped just below the surface, beneath the opaqueness. “You, what are you saying there!” He pointed at Roger.

“He’s not saying—” I tried to explain, turning to Roger. But I stopped, for Roger was indeed saying something. He was holding a crucifix and saying a different prayer, in the ancient language of the Morro people, the people of the
mountains. I turned from one to the other in confusion. Only Grandfather knew such prayers.

The rules had changed, and no one had warned me. Mang Minno was spitting as he called out his incantation, and Roger, who seemed to find some solace in shutting his eyes, was shaking uncontrollably but still reciting his prayer.

With an angry cry, Mang Minno grabbed at my brother’s crucifix. His hand was lashed suddenly with cuts, as if by a whip. But he held on and ripped the crucifix, throwing it to the ground. He shoved my brother down, and instantly tears came to my eyes at the sight of my brother.

“Come, Roman, we shall call Agraria on our own.” He reached out to me; his voice was like a hiss, slicing through air.

“No.” I kicked him away. I helped Roger up, and we started to back away. “Rog, are you hurt? Can you walk?”

“I shall try.” He got up and placed his arm around my shoulder. “Get behind me and run home.”

“I won’t leave you.” I held on to him. The mass in the water set the earth trembling and began to roll toward us. It was huge, the size of at least six tourist buses in length. As big as our two-story house in height and width.

“Come, master!” Mang Minno shouted in a crazed voice. “The boy has made his promise. The tribunal has accepted. All that is needed is a drop of his blood to seal it. The other will give his soul. He has come willingly.” Mang Minno walked toward me with the fishbone held in his hand like a dagger.

I watched the dark mass in the water, transfixed by the sight. The ocean broke open, the way it did for the cargo ships in Manila Bay. I saw the speed at which it was approaching; there was no way we could outrun it, whatever it was. I pictured a thousand man-eating fishes.

The fish surfaced and it was monstrous, with large eel-like parasites attached on its sides. It opened its mouth and a million fishes came forth, like a plague. The tribunal swam around Roger and me in a tight circle. I was paralyzed.

“Minno!” I heard a loud voice boom from behind us. My brother and I turned to see my grandfather come forward, a spear in his hand.

Mang Minno gaped with genuine fear. The confidence leaked out of his voice. “Prudencio.” His eyes were human again. They softened as when one sees an old friend. But the tribunal spoke to him, and his eyes turned hard again. “This is no longer your concern. But perhaps the tribunal will still accept you if I speak to them. We can live forever, Prudencio, stay young forever.”

“Not my concern? Surely you are mistaken. Are these boys not of my very
blood? You have gone mad if you think I would let you harm one hair on their heads. Their souls are already logged in a different book.” He turned to Roger. “You have done well. You said the counterprayer as I taught you.”

My mouth fell open. I was in a panic. How would I ever get my feeble grandfather and my brother out? It was truly a nightmare.

My grandfather patted my head. “Have you no faith in me yet, Roman?” He pulled out a necklace from the chain around his neck, and I saw that he had the other half of Mang Minno’s fishbone. “This does not belong to me, though it was once given to me. I kept it, knowing that such a day would come. I did not know it would involve my own grandchildren, but perhaps it is fitting.” He took the bone and blew into it, and the creature in the ocean came forward.

“Lolo
, what are you doing?” I gasped.

“We refute you!” Grandfather roared, and handed the bone to me.

“Yes, take it to your lips, Roman,” Mang Minno shouted.

My grandfather looked at me quietly. “Throw it into the water, son.”

I nodded and threw it into the ocean. The water exploded, the waves as high as a house. I thought it would consume us, but it did not. Mang Minno took his necklace and held it out to me. I looked at it. It was covered in spit. I turned away, disgusted. He screamed and the necklace tightened around his neck. The fishbone weighed him down; it pulled him to his knees. “Prudencio,” he called out to my grandfather.

“You were long ago dead to me, my friend. Go to your rest.” Grandfather’s tears surprised me.

Mang Minno leaned forward into the water. He bared sharp teeth at us and laughed. His jaw thickened and lengthened. “It will not end with me. I shall find another.”

“No more.” Grandfather raised his spear, and I saw that it was the one that Aurora had hanging in her father’s old study, Mang Minno’s old study. “Remember how we found Agraria? With this spear? Blessed with holy water and the prayers of your family when we were both so engulfed by poverty? Your favorite spear, the one you said was blessed by God Himself.” He threw it down, and it stabbed right through Mang Minno. The second it touched him he turned into a fish, and not even one of the tribunal.

He had once told me that those who retire become part of the tribunal, but I thought it had been only a figure of speech. I did not know he meant literally. He raised his head one last time, and I saw that he had become a bottom feeder, a catfish.

The fishbone moved from his neck, which was now replaced by gills. It came to life and broke free of the necklace. It swam like a living fish toward the
half we had thrown into the water and formed a full skeleton. The bones swam toward the monster in the ocean, and the monster opened its mouth and took in the swimming skeleton. The monster submerged itself immediately, leaving only a circular disturbance in the smoothness of the ocean.

The water finally receded, and we hobbled home without too many words. The eclipse was over, and the light came soothingly upon our backs.

“He was my best friend.” Grandfather sighed. “Roman, you may never win your father’s affection, but you should rejoice in what you do have. A brother who would risk his life to save you, and a grandfather who cares.” He pointed to the edge of the forest, where Aurora waited in the sunlight with her books.

“I thought she was only interested in me because of her father.”

“Have a little faith in yourself,” Grandfather said.

F
ROM THAT DAY
on, I no longer agonized over Father’s disinterest. I merely accepted him for who he was. I learned to be thankful, to value that which I did have: my grandfather to teach me the kind of character it took to become a man, and my brother’s companionship.

The three of us became inseparable. We began fishing in the sunnier parts of the ocean. We found our own fishing spot, without any shade, and we became brown from the sun.

~
W
HEN
R
OMAN FINISHES HIS TALE
, it is early evening. I know because the room has cooled. The cellar is filled with silence. Roderick is in awe. He watches Roman’s hands as if he will pull out an
antíng-antíng
in the shape of a fishbone. Roman chuckles and messes my brother’s hair.

“Imagine if we had that bone, Jando,” Roderick says to me. “The fishes we could call. I bet we could ride in the belly of a whale.”

“Stupido,”
I tell him. “Did you not understand any of it? That man was bad. He wanted to take Roman down into the water forever, away from his family.”

“I would not let it make me evil,” Roderick says.

“Go to sleep now, you two,” Mama says. “Those things belong to the darkness. We must rely on God. We must ask Him to make us strong, unafraid. To give us the strength to band together, to defeat these devils.” She makes the sign of the cross. “God will guide us through this.”

“Yes,” Aling Anna says. “If we stay strong like Roman and his grandfather did, there will come a day when this war shall end and we will have the sunlight
on our faces again. Will you visit the beaches and search for your own watering hole, Roderick?”

“Yes.” Roderick brightens. “And Alejandro can come along if he wishes.” My brother sneaks a look at me.

“Maybe I will find the watering hole first,” I joke, and we elbow one another.

Mang Selso snorts. “I was quite a fisherman myself in my youth. I challenge anyone to a fishing contest the first chance we get.” He winks at Roderick and me.

“We accept the challenge. Right, guys?” Roman asks Roderick and me. He holds out his hand to each of us, and we shake it, cementing the deal as fishing partners.

“All of you, be prepared to lose,” Mang Ped joins in. “Do not forget I grew up in a fishing village.” He is lying on his back, his eyes already shut, wearing a big grin.

“Excuse me.” Mrs. Yoshi straightens her posture. “But I believe all of the men should be prepared to be put to shame. Besides, Pedro, you would cheat with your premonitions. You would know exactly where the fish swim.” She puts an arm around her daughter, Mica. “Tell them, sweetheart. Is there a better fisherwoman than your mother?”

“I know of none.” Mica glows with pride.

“Whoa-ho!” Mama grins at us. “Did you hear that?” We laugh and settle into our mats.

Mang Selso, still smiling, attends to his father, Tay Fredrico. The old man has been coughing hard. There is a dry scraping in his throat that makes us cringe. Mang Selso covers him with an extra blanket.
“Tay
, here. Some water. Drink.”

“No.” The old Spaniard pushes the tin away.

Roderick and I stay awake as long as we can, discussing Mang Minno. I think of the three of us fishing together someday, me, Roderick, and my sister, Isabelle. I send God a prayer to watch after her and Papa wherever they are. I close my eyes and try to imagine where she could be.