Once there was an angry girl with nowhere to go. A great sickness enveloped the land, and the people in her province had no choice but to close themselves off to avoid its spread.
This place was not her home, she had family there, true, but she longed for the giant girders that reached the clouds, the bustling sea of people that never seemed to end, the long nights spent with friends over a glass of wine.
And as the days passed into weeks, her loneliness only grew.
There was no way she could leave her house, lest she get caught by the officials.
She would have lost herself in books, but she had read them all. She tried to escape into the bright screens she had brought from home, but they didn’t work as fast as she had wanted them to. She tried to make music, but she had no muse.
She had nothing in her life.
Not there at least.
One day the loneliness broke her. She couldn’t stand the four walls of a room that had no meaning to her.
She waited until her family fell asleep (and hopefully the guards as well) and ran through the streets like a madwoman.
If she could she would have screamed at the heavens, finally she had a small bit of freedom.
And that was enough, for at least one night.
This became her routine, trying to stretch her body and pushing the boundaries of what she could do.
Until one fateful night.
She had lost herself in the breeze that she almost didn’t notice the flashlight moving towards her. She tried to run, but this part of the town was unknown to her and she fully expected to get caught.
“Psssssssssst. Over here.”
In the darkness, she could only hear that the sound came from the Galawin tree. She remembered the stories that her lola would tell, about spirit beings that inhabited the trees.
She figured that she’d rather take her chances in the tree than get caught and let the darkness take her.
A small light illuminated (what she assumed was) the interior of the tree.
Sitting in front of her was a creature, human in form, covered with a patchwork of fungus and moss.
She was the first to break the silence.
“Hello.”
The creature replied back with a warm smile.
“Hello, what is your name?”
“I’m Julie, it’s nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Excuse me, but, what ARE you?”
“I wish I knew myself. Do we really know what we are?”
Julie met this statement with a confused silence.
“HAHAHA, I’m just kidding. You humans are so touchy when it comes to jokes.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just not used to—”
“Seeing a spirit? Most humans are, there’s a reason why we’re regarded as legends used by people to get what they want.”
“So,” Julie looked at the creature, “what DO you want?”
“I just want to help,” the creature replied with a toothy grin.
“What do you mean?”
“I figured I could lift some spirits,” (Julie later realized this was a joke)
Julie sighed, “I can’t stay here, not in this town, not anymore. I wish I could just grow wings and fly back home.”
“Do you think that would make you feel better? I hear it’s pretty empty there as well.”
“It would still be home.”
The creature nodded, “In times of strife nothing is more comfortable than being where you can let your heart out.”
“Yes, see you understand. Not like the rest of my family.”
“I’m sure they only want what’s best for you.”
“How? The past few weeks I’ve gotten more broken. I can’t move, I can’t think. I can’t even talk to my friends because the signal here is miserable.”
“And so are you.”
“Yes.” Julie sat down and buried her head in her hands.
“Did you ever think it might not be about you?”
“You sound like everyone on the news.”
“You don’t think they have a point?”
“So, you know what’s going on.”
“When something as big as this is happening, the spirits tend to talk to one another.”
“Where did you hear it from?”
“A travelling breeze, but that doesn’t matter.”
“Then why are you still here? Why don’t you help get rid of it?”
“That is beyond my powers.”
“Why are you even talking to me?”
“Because if I can’t fix the bigger problem then at least I can—”
“Fix me?”
“I can try.”
“Why bother? I’ll probably just melt into my room, trying to figure out what I can do before the walls start to close in.”
“Would you rather that than—”
“Than being dead?”
“……”
“I’m not stupid, I know the risks. If it doesn’t kill me the quarantine just might. I can feel myself slowly slipping away.”
“I’ve met your kind before. The passionate. The brave. The ones willing to set themselves on fire just to feel alive.”
“See—you know—”
“And those that don’t care about the tears they leave in their tracks.”
“……”
“How many broken hearts have you left behind? How many spirits have you shattered just because you became bored and wanted something new?”
“That’s not fair.”
“The truth seldom is.”
Julie sat in silence with the creature.
“They’re gone now.”
It was then that Julie remembered that she was actually running away from the guards.
Julie looked at the creature and thanked it for its time. Before she left she turned to it and asked, “Can I come back tomorrow? I’d still like to talk to you.”
“You don’t have to go all the way here. Just listen to the night air”
And as the Dawinde saw her running back to her house it smiled.
If nothing else,
It would be kind.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the story “How Dauin got its Name” in Negros Oriental and Siquijor Island Legends, Beliefs and Folkways. Aldecoa-Rodriguez. 2000.
Dawinde illustration by Marko Mikhal Gomez Deposoy
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