There are moments that stretch into years if you let them. Time has many masters, but none more potent than fear, this I learned many years ago.
It….He… I don’t know how to describe whatever it was. It just suddenly appeared before me, no, not suddenly. I remember the sound of rushing leaves, the soft laughter of a man and the smell of tobacco. I could never forget it.
He was tall, taller than any human had any right to be. He took a puff from his cigar and just stared at me.
I’m getting ahead of myself. I was doing chores in the field next to the forest, drying the laundry and making sure that the harvest would be ready when I sat under the Balete tree for some shade.
I woke up and he was there. We stared at each other for what felt like days, until he broke the silence.
“Hello, I love you.”
I had heard stories of the Kapre falling in love with human women before. I even remember a story of a girl named Juana who was stalked by her Kapre and the creature even changed form to be that of her lover. It was shot at by police officers but when they looked at the creature they only found a tall banana tree with bullet holes.
Bullets couldn’t save me now, I didn’t know what could. Three simple words were all that it took to paralyze me with fear and I cried as I said my reply.
“I don’t love you, I don’t even know who you are.”
The look on the Kapre’s face told me all I needed to know. I had hurt it. Far more than if I had taken a gun and shot it.
He took another drag out of his cigar and smiled.
“You will know me, and you will love me.”
Then, he vanished into his tree.
The strange part was he was right. Years had passed and I expected to be stalked by a monster, I had never expected that it… he… would become my friend, and then something more.
Life is full of expectations that are never met; it is even more full of surprises.
The Kapre was there through every broken heart, every fight with my family. He was there when I lost my first child, and when my other children grew to be strong.
He would show his presence in the small ways, a shower of stone outside my house, the smell of his cigar wafting on the wind, but I always knew he was there. A silent protector.
In return I would never let anyone harm his home, the Balete tree was as much my home as it was his. I spent countless nights, watching the stars with him watching over me.
And here I sit, 80 summers have passed through my life and I am under the Balete tree with my love.
“I know you, and I have loved you.”
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Kapre Myths and description in Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Ramos. 1971.
Kapre Illustration by Abe Joncel Guevarra
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