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Fiction

Etymologies

Jun was squatting over a burrow hollowed out by an old acacia’s jutting roots, wary of creepers that might crawl on him as he defecated. He was in a shitty mood. The dewy weeds tickled his extremities, and every now and then he...

Where the Sun Was

The rains have been pouring for more than seven years now. The clouds have always been dark. I can only remember of how much I surveyed the blue skies before the rains started. It feels like detaching a splinter—just to remember what the world...

Martika’s Kitchen

  My parents have a rather unconventional setup. They may be living separate lives now, but during the past three years or so, Dad has been coming back to our house in Cubao to have lunch. He drops by every Friday, the day when almost...

Sometimes when shadows walk ahead

We were in front of the Aristocrat’s Restaurant, where the malignant bone of Ermita and Malate in Manila breaks into two. Traffic was like a sledgehammer crushed on disgruntled drivers and pitiful passengers. The wind was accelerating like a developing mental disorder. A...

“Smartphone Arguments”

In a Chinese restaurant, a mother and father tapped away on their smartphones, ignoring the three children in between them. If someone was writing a story about us, Anna thought, then dismissed the possibility. No one in the restaurant was even looking at her...

Babaylan in playland by the sea

“Rosebud… A girl’s name? You wouldn’t think that a man in his dying breath would mention someone’s name out of the blue after fifty years, would you?” “Well…you’re pretty young, Mr. Thompson. A fellow would remember a lot of things you wouldn’t think he’d...

Random Pickings

Live to leave, leave to live

“You don’t need time?” He repeated looking straight at the lady’s eyes. “I am already decided, sir” she responded without even thinking for a second. “I...

Giving Lives

Josefina found the kitten under one of the rose bushes one Sunday morning, cowering from the black Labrador that belonged to their next door...

Madonna of endless linen

Our lady of one day at a time Our lady of veils allowed to droop Our lady of the thrice-revised corner Madonna of postponement Madonna of a thumb...

The visitation

The first to visit her is the little boy with the butcher knife in his heart. There’s dried blood on the handle, and he...