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Fiction

The Birth of Zaroasther

They connived with the dark shadows, the family who lived in a house full of glass windows and graven saints. Toraja invited me to their family dinner in Baguio City to commemorate their matriarch’s third death anniversary. That morning, five black pigs were...

Homecoming

The train slowed down. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. A middle-aged lady wearing a double-breasted coat told him his stop was near. He sat up from his bunk and readied his 500L backpack, messenger bag, thermal jacket, bonnet, and gloves. The man...

Tabuc Suba

Cicadas talk to each other in loud, prolonged streaks of staccato bursts. For a few minutes before sunset, the insects make sound and give it an almost palpable feel. The upswell of choruses stir the air, and dusk’s fractal lights of brilliant orange...

When the Heart Knows

Charito's pace slowed as she neared Barbara's, the renowned restaurant in Intramuros that is next to the centuries-old San Agustin Church. The cobblestone streets shimmered in the late afternoon sun, their rough edges whispering stories from the past. Horse-drawn carriages passed by, their...

After the Ascension

(Short Fiction in the Style of Joaquin Antonio Penalosa’s God’s Diary) When the Cherubim settled down and the fluttering of wings turned into soft rustlings, the Father said, “So tell us, My Son, tell us, what happened.”     The Father knew everything, of course, from...

Fence Sitter

THE SWEETEST RAMBUTAN she had ever tasted grew on their neighbor’s tree. When it was in season, the tree brimmed with loose hanging clusters of bright red fruit covered with fleshy pliable spines.  Birds flocked to feed on them and bees buzzed with...

Random Pickings

The Backroom Angels Bugaloo

No one, least of all her schoolmates at St. Celestina’s Academy, would have pictured Chona Laon Badoy as the Mayor of San Semilla in...

Threads of Courage

The night the war reached Cebu, Maria woke to the sound of distant explosions. It was April 1942 and she had just turned fourteen...

The yule tree

From when she was a child, Marivic could see spirits. A hairy creature, half-man and half horse and smoking a cigar, occupied the balite tree...

The pipes

  They can’t kill us. No. I won’t let them. Ever. Since the day I came to this world, I opened my eyes and was greeted by...