Passerines Sing For Nene

Passerines Sing for Nene Every morning early birds gather up in the front lawn of the house roaming endlessly, searching for any trace of food until Nene arrives. With her walis tingting and dustpan, she gathers all the dead leaves that scattered around the old mango tree where the birds have nestled long enough for Nene to even remember. Years ago when she was fairly young, she would wait for the sun to light up the whole place before cleaning because by then she had enough already of watching the birds do away with their existence. But she couldn't afford such luxury now, with her back aching, she bends over a little to start a small fire to burn all the leaves she have collected in front of the tree, a ritual that she have been doing for decades now. Before leaving, Nene looks up to the tree and mumbles as if she is trying to say something. When she had finished doing this, she slowly turned and stared for a moment to the old house with smile that made her wrinkly face lit up a little, as if reflecting the fire that was starting to die that time. The old Spanish house looked intimidating during the day but terrifyingly dark during the night. But Nene could not recognize the difference, for her this was still the house that had been her home since her father had left her in the caring of her Tiya Celina who at that time was already pregnant with her oldest son. As the new family grew, memories of her life up in to the mountains of Isabela had been dying slowly. Her father broke his promise to come back for her. But to his credit, the letters kept coming. Last she have heard from him was her mother died of giving birth with her seventh sibling. Then news stopped coming. She belonged to this new place, her little heaven. From the capiz window that was slightly opened, Nene sees Cely stares blankly at the open space. Nene then rushes back inside the house to finish everything she have started before she went outside. Just as she was to open the kitchen door, she heard the whistling of the kettle. The steam was already clouding up in the stove when she reached it. As she was pouring the hot water from the kettle to the basin already half filled with tap water, she heard a sudden loud noise that seemed to come from the second floor. "Strange." she says to herself and continued adding salt to the lukewarm water then carefully lifted up the basin while trying to steady her shaky hands. With each step in the stairs, she struggles to keep the water from pouring out of the basin. She wonders what Celina would do if she were still alive. "Would Tiya let this happen to Cely? Would she do the same things?" With the bedroom door slightly ajar, she saw Cely, lying in the floor. Nene's small body was shaking as she approached Cely. That was three weeks ago. *** “May will always be her favorite month.” Only this brief memory of Myrna's childhood includes Nene and the old scary house As a kid, Myrna would often climb in the Sanchez' wall with her friends just to be driven away like kittens by Nene. Nonetheless, with Niño and her other daredevil cousins, they managed to sometimes be successful of getting past Nene during siesta times or whenever she would go out of the scary house which seldomly happens. Then they will call Cely to play with them. "Never mind Dante." was everybody's agreement pertaining to Cely's twin brother. Even Cely doesn't seem to be bothered by this set up. Whenever they played with her, Cely would smile like Myrna have never seen her before. Far from the bored expression Myrna and her mother sees from the capiz window whenever they walked past Cely's house from the market. This was a different Cely. This is the Cely Myrna loves to be with. Dante on the other hand was a very different case. Even with the angelic white face like her sister, he was the imp everybody hated. Every chance he got, he will let them know that he was the one spoils their fun by telling Nene

of their trespassings and Cely's disobedience. At that time, the twins’ mother, Celina, with the two other older children and the driver in did not survive a vehicular accident. The father since then on never seems to bother and depended on the young Nene and a cousin who visits occasionally to take care of the twins. One time, while playing secretly in the mango tree, Nene arrived with a vengeance, well in Myrna's childhood eyes that is. With her infamous walis tingting, she drove everybody away like kittens. Unfortunately, Niño was the one who had it the hardest. He fell from the tree because he was frightened by the sudden appearance of Nene. Blood from the Niño’s little arm splattered all over the place. Even Nene, who at that time was old enough to be their mother, was terrified to see so much blood could come from a child as small as Niño. She was stunned and trembling like as if sudden electric current passed through her. With her half sane consciousness she lifted the poor kid and managed to bring him to his own house. The image of her now pale and crying kid in Nene's bloody arms caused the outrage of a mother for his son's sake. Even Myrna's mother had to take her away to prevent her from seeing what could have had happened next. All she remembered was the endless cussing from her aunt and uncle that had driven the crying Nene away. From then on, Sanchez' place became the unholy ground. Parents have forbidden their children from even playing near that place. Nene became an instant antagonist of the town. She became the favorite scarecrow mothers used with their children to prohibit them from roaming around. Then Cely became the old Cely again; whenever Myrna had the chance of her to get a glimpse through the capiz window, she would smile timidly and turn away. This brought pain to the heart of young Myrna. *** It was the same time of year again. May, season of mangoes. Myrna is old enough now. She even had started her own family but still, just standing over the same place, reminds her of that part of her bittersweet memories of childhood clearly like as if it just happened last week. Like a scar of an old wound that will keep haunting you even in adulthood. Standing in front of the rusty old gate of the even older Spanish house, Myrna seemed hesitant to enter. Three weeks ago Cely's death was the talk of the town. When she have heard of this through from her mother on the telephone she immediately decided to pay a visit to this town. She dragged with her the youngest daughter. She almost did not make it was just that the burial had been delayed for the sake of Dante, Cely’s twin brother, who unfortunately couldn’t come despite the delaying for burial of the now three week old corpse. She paced slowly, guided by the dim light escaping from the crowded tables outside arranged for funeral games, into the house. Inside, the coffin lays there, surrounded by neatly arranged, mostly empty chairs. A handful of people inside, a group of teenagers, stayed for a while however. After they ate biscuits and drank coffee served by an old woman and two other teenage girls(they’re white as the Sanchez’s so maybe they are relatives), they waited patiently until the old woman was preoccupied of the people outside. They wandered around the sala just eyeing curiously at the antiqueness of the things inside the spacious room as if they were in a museum. These people mostly of unfamiliar faces are the types of people who will come whenever wherever there is a wake not minding even if they do not know personally the owner of the house. Some may have only come to satisfy their curiosity of the house that never opened for them before. “They didn’t even dare.” Myrna thought to herself, pertaining to her neighbors. Nobody seemed to forget after all. Not even Niño who is now a grown man, or to be more precise, a woman, could forget the accident due to the ugly keloid it left on his arm. The open wound in Nino's arm took time to heal after all. Back then, while covalescening with his injuries, Myrna stayed around with his cousin, helping him forget the pain through verbally hating Nene over and over again. "... until it alleviates the pain." he said.

His parents on the other hand, even blame Nene for the sexual preference of the once innocent young boy. Nene is still the antagonist after all this years. While others just … well, just don’t care. Myrna is not glad to know of this. Maybe living in a far away place had an effect on her. She was glad she raised her family apart from the people she grew up with. Now it was clear to her how unforgiving they could be. At least, it was good to know that Nene was never left alone with other people’s company who has no idea of her reputation. Myrna looked around in search of a familiar face, Nene’s face. Defeated she slumped to one of the available seats of the near the coffin. And then Myrna saw her. Seeing the old woman now, Myrna couldn’t be mistaken, it was the same cat-like eyes that scared her as a kid. She looked older, even paler than before but age could not hide the Spanish features that makes her face distinct from the old people of that place. She sat there quietly in the corner, looking straight in the mango tree that is visible in an open window, her face void of any emotions. What she was thinking, Myrna could hardly fathom. *** It was the same time of year again. May, season of mangoes. It took her another year before she had enough courage. That morning an old woman was seen lying face down on the ground with both arms spread on the ground. A young girl with her cousin witnessed this. They came in Sanchez’ ground in search of the infamous mango tree that bears the sweetest mango in the land according to their uncle. The girl recounted she had never seen so many birds before, gathered around the corpse’s body.