“Chicken!!”
“Alfonso, stay with us, you might get hurt! It’s dark out and we may not find you.”
“Chicken!!”
“What are you pointing to? There’s no chicken there! You’re just pointing at the moon!”
“Chicken?”
“Are you looking because there’s an eclipse? Silly little Fonso, the sky is just red because of the moon.”
“Chicken! Lola!”
“Oh you’re thinking about the story Lola Rose told you?”
“Chicken!”
“Do you want me to tell you the story?”
*Nods*
“Okay but after this you’re going to bed, okay?”
“Okay!”
“There was once the moon, a beautiful woman crossing the night sky. She had continued this path since time immemorial. That was before the bird came. It was a terrifying beast, coming from the eastern horizon.”
“Chicken!”
“Hush child, let me continue.”
*Nods*
“The moon had many places it would appear from, many called them holes in the sky. All from the eastern horizon.”
“Chicken?”
“No Fonso, we cant eat it like chicken. It was way too massive, bigger than the biggest island. The only reason it hasn’t eaten us is because we protect the moon. Your lola said, in the old days, they would go out and make noise. They would bang their pots and gongs to let the bird know to spit her out. In some stories it eats the sun as well and if both vanish in its stomach then it would look to the people of the world as its next meal.”
*Yawn* “Chicken?”
“You really want chicken, don’t you? Tell you what, I’ll get us takeout from Andoks and we’ll pretend we’re going to do to the Minokawa what it does to the moon!”
“Chicken!!”
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Minokawa description in Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Ramos. 1971.
Mambabarang Illustration by Megel Ramiterre
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