The Adventures of James Maglinaw and the Tree with the Door

James Perseus Estacion Maglinaw

She never really understood him. Sure she's his mother, and mothers' usually have a knack for understanding their children better than anyone else, but not him, not James. Because in all honesty – and this is in defense of her – James was peculiar. Just to clear things out though, he was not at all socially inept or somehow differently abled. He was quite typical. However there was just something about him that one won't be able to quite put a finger on – peculiar.

Poor, Dr. Maglinaw was consumed once again by the thought of his son's peculiarity as she hastily threw on a pair of acid washed jeans and a plain white t-shirt. She was on her way out to the local CoViD-19 center in Makati City, where she had to wear light inner clothes since their makeshift protective gear – a bunch of plastic bags with holes where your head poked out – did not really breath well. No complaints from doktora, of course. But how could she when, now all she can think about was her only son James who was thousands of kilometers from her – stranded and alone.

She thought she had already made peace with their situation with the pandemic and all, but she'd always come full circle to this worrying state she was in, where all she thinks about was James – no one, or nothing else. No virus, no pandemic, just his sixteen year-old peculiar son, who she can't help but just worry about. I kid you not however when I say this was her happy place. Thinking of James or, to be honest, pseudo-worrying about him, was doktora's escape from her reality at the frontline of a global pandemic her government was not at all prepared for.

In truth, she really had no reason to worry that much. James was like any other teenage Filipino male: bright, good looking if he made an effort and above all else, kind, who just happened to be so into magic, ghosts, and the like; a young boy so enamored by pre-hispanic filipino folklore that he once dressed up as a Tikbalang – a half man, half horse creature who dwelled on top of trees and acted as guardians to some – at a school costume party, complete with stilts and a rolled up tobacco joint; James Perseus Estacion Maglinaw.

Oh the Tikbalang costume – she got an earful from James' adviser for letting him bring an actual joint of tobacco, to a school function, but what could she had done? James was not a person you could argue with especially when it came to his "passions".

He was just so into Filipino Magic and Folklore that for College, he had begged his mother to send her to this huge university outside the capital, Manila. In a city named for being a place when pirates used to capture young maidens to make them brides – Dumaguete.

Apparently, the city is a Mecca for magic chasers like himself owing to the fact that the island of Siquijor of the mambabarang fame, Dapitan City which allegedly is place origin of the Manghiloanay, Tañon Strait with its mystical sea nymphs, Mount Talinis and Lake Balinsasayaw, the last remaining nesting grounds of the Sigbin are all just minutes from Dumaguete.

She shrugged these off. She knew Silliman Univeristy. This was a top tier university, ranked one of the best in the country for Nursing, Accountancy and even Agriculture – and she wanted the best for James. Heck, it was a relief that James even wanted to go to school after everything that had happened that year he finished up Senior High school. So when James opened up about actually leaving his room and study hundreds of miles away, Dr. Maglinaw couldn't say no.

James was safe at Silliman – she kept telling herself. James in his dorm room at Doltz Hall is safe – from the virus, from Tikbalangs and Aswangs. He is safe.

"Mom?" James answered the phone half asleep, the remnants of Rhum and Iced Tea still reeking from his breath.

"Of to the center." His mother said in a very calm, but telling tone.

"Wait. What?" James bolted up in daze of hang-over and confusion.

"I thought you were pulling out of the response team after what happened with that Senator whatshisname?" James followed up.

"Oh hun, you know how it is here, they need doctors." She replied. James rummaged through the pile of photographs on his nightstand and grabbed his glasses. It was 7 AM.

"No mom please." James replied has he hears the rustling of keys and a door lightly banging.

"Mom. You can't go. I checked the bones. They don't bode well." These were one of those moments that his mother learned to tune out.

"Hun, I need to go. Don't worry the confirmed cases here have slowly gone down. No need to worry. I just need to see my team through." She paused and took in a deep breath.

"I need to see our city through." The sound of an engine revving up followed, and all James could say was for his mother to keep safe.

The phone call ended with a couple of beeps. James tried to shake of his hangover. But it got the best of him, especially that a loud shriek slowly grew louder and louder.

Marius Flores.