The Color of My Fears [COMPLETE]

Chapter 6 - The Rite [#22]

"You should have stayed a little longer that night. You should have seen the tinhab," Ismael told me. We were walking down the grassy path towards the creek a week after the rite of circumcision. I walked with an awkward gait, being too careful not to aggravate the wound.

"The tinhab? You did catch the tinhab?" I repeated, more unbelieving than feeling surprised.

"Yes," Ismael replied, "it came to perch on top of the guava tree, a few minutes after you left. It was easy to do. The tinhab was meant to be caught." Ismael was munching a piece from a stick of sugar cane.

"But," I stammered, "Nilo had the bird, he caught it from a branch of that guava tree. He even made a pet out of it." I felt incredulous after what happened. I didn't tell him the purchase I made. If Ismael had caught the tinhab, then what was the bird I bought from Nilo with my alkansiya? Shades of the engkanto sitting under the balete tree!

"Oh, that one," replied Ismael. You and Nilo fell for it. "It's a black bird alright, but it's not the tinhab. It's a look-alike sent to fool those with malevolent purposes in mind," Ismael revealed. "You could not fool the hermit of the creek. Father tried once but failed," he added solemnly. He walked ahead of me, taking slow, measured steps.

I could no longer contain the hidden disbelief inside me, which slowly diminished as the veracity of Ismael's words took over. I tugged at his loose T-shirt. "If you had caught the tinhab, what happened to it?" It was a whisper in fact, as if I didn't want to hear what Ismael would finally reveal. He had this habit of stating facts in bits and pieces, unraveling the mystery as if he's unwinding a skein of yarn very, very slowly.

Ismael stopped and turned to face me. "Why, it died after granting my wish. But another one will take its place. It will come back again next year. Its spirit still lives," he said. I saw his lips formed into a shape, the kind which made you wonder whether it's a smile or a frown.

"You made a wish?" I started to shake, feeling none the wiser after Ismael's revelations.

"Yes," Ismael said. He got something from his pocket. It was a small bottle with a blue haze swirling inside. He raised the bottle for me to see clearly. Now this time he was obviously smiling. "I made a wish for you. See, this is the color of your fears."

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