The Old Lady in the Mysterious House

Father had decided we settle in barangay San Roque, his birthplace. He said life in the rural area is not as tiresome as it is in the city because it is not as fast-moving as it is in the city. He would always say that to Mother, who hadn't experienced living in the rural area. He would also add, "If we live in the city, we would old easily or die young."

San Roque is a small barangay at the heart of a remote town in the province of Leyte. It would take 4 hours to get there from Tacloban City. The houses in San Roque were scattered among coconut farms and rice fields. There were hectares of rice fields and San Roque was a supplier of rice in town and exporter to Tacloban City.

The house and the rice field next to the backyard were Father's heirlooms from his parents who had passed away long before I was born. His parents had left the rice fields and the house to the care of a relative until we came in.

Unlike in the slum areas of Cebu, San Roque's houses were a bit far from each other. To the right of our new house, one house stood three hundred meters across the coconut farm that spread alongside the road. The house was owned by Collette's family. Next to his house, fifty meters away, was the barangay's chapel. In front of our house was a narrow road. Across was a thicket that led to a forest. To our left, clusters of bushes spread to a group of rice fields. And, at the back of our house, a hundred meters across our rice field, was another house. The villagers called it the "mysterious house".

Father told me that the mysterious house hadn't been there before he left the village. It was two decades ago. He didn't know who owned it. He still recognized other houses in the village, though.

Collette spoke with me about the mysterious house. He said the owner of the house, a mid-sixty lady, didn't talk to anybody ever since the house was constructed a year ago. He told me that it was unbelievable that the house construction finished in less than a week.

The villagers never saw lights inside the mysterious house every night. It was invisible when the total dark came. No one had ever gone inside or tried to see what was inside. Everybody was afraid to go near it. It had even come to a point when the house became a local legend, that whoever gets in couldn't get out or wouldn't be seen forever. Although, there hadn't been anyone who vanished in the village.

The villagers didn't know the name of the old lady. They would say "the old lady" if they spoke of her. She could be noticed outside of the house on weekends, but not on weekdays. On Saturdays, she would work on cultivating the plants and young trees around the house. On Sundays, she would go to the chapel in her black gown, a scapular around the rumpled neck, and a rosary slung one slim hand. She didn't talk to the attendees even to the visiting priest. At the end of the mass, she would move out silently avoiding the villagers' eyes. If somebody would courageously greet her, she would just nod.

One Sunday mass, I was glancing at her sometimes, trying to examine her appearance. Her hair, tied on her back, was graying. She didn't wear makeup, like Mother, because her wrinkles on the cheeks and forehead could be seen. She was serious and it seemed that she didn't know how to smile. She responded to the mass, gave out a sign of peace to us, and took communion. When she glanced at me, I couldn't look straight into her black eyes. They seemed to scold me and I shivered when I did. I felt that they were different. As though behind them lay treacherous thoughts.

One Friday afternoon, Collette and Lolito, his older brother, and I were hunting wild ducks using slingshots. We crossed the coconut farm by their house to the rice field to search for our first victim. A brown wild duck fluttering low over the rice plants caught Lolito's attention.

"There," muttered Lolito.

We fumbled pebbles in our pocket. We aimed our slingshots at the bird while it was busy pecking snails by the dike. Lolito shot first. The wild duck dodged it. Collette followed and the bird plummeted amidst the yellow-green blades of rice. It came out to the dike limping. It spread its wings as it ran away. I centered the wild duck between the twigs of my slingshot and released the pebble. It fell off. We hurried towards it, submerging our feet in the mud. The wild duck strove to hop and run away. We were so close to it that we could have grabbed it, but it flew up in the direction of the mysterious house.

We stopped and looked at each other. Our eyes almost fell out.

"I won't go there." Collette broke out. He put the slingshot in his neck like it was a precious necklace.

I turned to Lolito.

He grinned. "It's all yours, Matt."

It was a big wild duck and could weigh one kilo. I thought that Mother would be proud of me if I would bring her a viand for dinner. But, I also thought of the old lady who might be there and might see me if I sneak in her backyard.

Courage still won. I thought of an answer if ever the old lady would see me. I would tell her the truth that I went after the wounded wild duck. And so I proceeded, leaving the siblings hunkering over the dikes.

"Take care!" hollered Collette.

I looked back and nodded at them.

My heart was beating faster as I crossed the wide squares of rice fields. I arrived at the hibiscus that thickly grew by the cyclone fence of the mysterious house. I moved along the hibiscus and reached the gates. The gates were steel and chained with a padlock. It made me think that the old lady was out and away. I searched for a possible entry through the cyclone fence, but I didn't find one.

I thought I couldn't get in except if I climb above the hibiscus and jump across the cyclone fence. I wore the slingshot in my neck and climbed the hibiscus. Newly trimmed twigs lashed at my arms creating rashes. I balanced my weight at the top of the hibiscus. I heard the slender trunks snapped, so I quickly leaped inside the backyard.

The backyard was filled with plastic containers of seedlings and plastic pots of tree saplings, grafted young trees, and flowering plants. There were also citrus, mango, guava, and banana trees growing in containers made from aluminum pails. There were daisies of various colors, chrysanthemums, baby's breath, heliconias, roses, zinnias, and sunflowers in flowering pots. The flowers enticed me so much that I forgot the reason why I was there.

I tiptoed around the mysterious house. The four walls appeared to be the same in size. They could be fifteen meters from end to end. If I was right, the area inside could be a perfect square. All four walls had three-hinged windows. The windows could be 4 meters from the ground. They were opened wide.

I continued walking until I got near the main door. Though I knew that the gates were locked, I had the feeling that the old lady was looking at me. I felt that she was somewhere inside the house looking out through a secret peephole. I also thought that if she was there, she would have known that someone had got in her backyard and have already reprimanded me.

I pondered on how I could see inside. I gazed at the door. There was no doorknob or latch. The temptation to push it told me so. Apparently, it was locked inside. Thinking that the old lady was inside, I quickly moved out of the house premises. I headed back to my uncooperative friends.

"The old lady is a plant lover," I spread the news, as soon as I settled down beside Collette.

Lolito's eyebrows scrunched up.

"Where's the wild duck?" asked Collette.

I had forgotten about it. "Oh, I didn't see it. Maybe it flew out of the backyard before I got in."

"Did you see the old lady?" Lolito said. It sounded like he'd gone there so many times.

I shook my head.

"So what did you see?" said Collette.

"Plant seedlings, flowers, and young trees."

"So, she's not a witch," Collette commented.

"I think so," I said. "Maybe, she's a horticulturist, so why be afraid of her."

"I'm not afraid of her," Lolito chimed.

"Yeah." I laughed. Collette laughed too. Lolito's lips were pointing down, and then he walked away.

That night, before I slept, I thought about the mysterious house. With its size, I thought it was the biggest house in the village. It probably had a luxurious living and dining room, a comfy bedroom, and a wide kitchen. Maybe it had a second floor, and on it were four bedrooms, and each bedroom had windows. Maybe it had sofa chairs with cushions and a flat-screen TV with a DVD player and speakers on the ground floor. Or maybe it had a Nintendo computer, the one I used to play with when we were still in Cebu.

Since we came into Father's village, I had become an out-of-school kid. I spent my days helping Father in the rice fields. I plucked weeds as it contests to grow with rice plants. I also removed snails. They suck the leaves of rice plants. I sometimes picked up dead rats. They had taken in the poison father had put inside the bamboo set along the dikes. Every noon, I would stay inside the house and watch Eat Bulaga on our old 16-inch Panasonic TV. And, sometimes when I was alone, I would think of the mysterious house.

I couldn't get away from the thought of going inside the mysterious house. I wanted to prove something. To make my friends, especially Lolito, respect me because I'm brave. To make them believe that the old lady was a normal person. I never believed in their story that the old lady was a witch and that she had a cauldron where she cooked her captives, especially children.

My plan was to get inside through the window. I needed to do it with the help of my friends or a ladder. The latter was laborious because I had to build it first and what if Father would ask me what that was for. And so, I decided to ask the brothers. We would do it on Sunday, just after she would go to the chapel.

My first move was to convince Collette and Lolito to come with me. They would help me up on the window. They would be my ladder. Lolito was difficult to convince at first, but I assured both of them that the lady was no witch or any supernatural being and that she was just a plant fanatic or a horticulturist. And, I persuaded them.

It was one Sunday morning right before the start of the mass. I had pretended to Mother that I was not feeling well. That alibi was also my suggestion to the brothers, but I thought they would have difficulty convincing their parents that they were both sick. Nevertheless, I had faith in Lolito. He would find a way. He was good at it and the naughtiest among us.

When father and mother left the house, I fleetly crept through the backdoor and dashed out to the rice fields. I stayed down the irrigation channel to wait for the brothers, never minding the sluggish flow of water in my ankle. I looked at the mysterious house through the blades of rice plants that were dancing in the gentle morning breeze. It stood like the house in the movie "Psycho". I felt blood crept at my back, but I had already told myself to conquer that fear. I glimpsed to my right. Here came Collette and Lolito, running like matchsticks.

We waited. Our eyes fastened on the gates of the mysterious house. After the bell's last clang, the gates opened. The old lady moved out and closed the gates. She walked briskly. I was curious about it because the way she walked didn't prove her age. I didn't know if the brothers shared the same observation.

And so, my plan was starting to realize.

Lolito was complaining that we were too heavy. I could feel Collette was trembling while holding my feet over his shoulders. His back pressed against the dusty wall. I reached the window sill, my right cheek touching the dusty wall.

"I'm going to drop you now," Lolito grumbled.

"Wait till I hold on to the window," I said.

Right after I clutched the window sill, Collette slid down. I knew his crotch hit hard on Lolito's neck. They fell to the ground. Collette held his groin in pain. Lolito laughed at his brother, but he still helped Collette up.

"I'm done with my job," declared Lolito. He trudged to the gates. "Are you coming, Collette? If you stay here, you can never go home." He tried to scare Collette.

Collette froze in a moment. He looked up at me. "I'm sorry, Matt." He traced Lolito's steps unwillingly. They left me hanging in the window.

A pool of sweat was dripping in my face. My arms were shaking arduously. I inhaled enough air and relaxed. After a minute, I struggled to haul myself up.

I had thought that the mysterious house had a second level. I had also expected to see a wooden floor on that second level. But, I found myself staring down at various well-grown plants and young trees piled on the ground inside. The mysterious house had no floor. No furnishings. No furniture and fixtures. No appliances. Nothing, but plants. The mysterious house was a plant warehouse.

I looked at every corner of the house. I noticed that there was a huge rectangular plane covered with plain gray tarpaulin set against the wall to my left. At a glance, it appeared to be a wide flat-screen, like that in movie theatres. Father and mother had taken me several times to watch Enteng Kabisote series and other Filipino movies, so I knew it was as wide as the one in the theatre.

I looked down at the ground that would receive my feet. Luckily, it was cleared with plants. I let myself hang for a moment and let go of my hold. I moved warily to the concealed rectangular plane. I gently tucked the tarpaulin open. My heart jumped to see a pale kid with sunken eyes. I thought it was the old lady. I covered it back. It was a huge mirror. I wondered what it was for.

I went around the house trying to find something that interests me. I thought if the old lady lives here, where does she sleep? How does she live in a house like this? Maybe she's not really staying here. Maybe she just came here on weekends to take care of the plants. Maybe she has a house somewhere else. While moving through a passageway leading to the mirror, I noticed that there were shoe prints on the ground. Prints of military combat boots. Soldiers could have been there sometime that week. Or, the prints could be from a friend who wore combat boots and had visited her that week.

I gave up thinking nonsense assumptions about the old lady. So, I decided to go out. Before I unlocked the bolted door, I noticed something glistened underneath the vase of a cacao plant by the door. It was a half-foot silver tube, bigger than my index finger. I picked it up. It resembled the aluminum tube father had used for our TV antenna. I pocketed it. I unbolted the door by gliding out the bar from the socket, and then I moved off.

Striding along the dikes towards home, I realized something. It made my heart galloped and I chilled. The old lady had been able to go out of the mysterious house even if the door was bolted inside. I remembered that the door didn't have a knob, a lock, or a chain on the outside. I thought that the lock inside was automatic. But I suppose, it was not. She couldn't go out through the windows. There might have been someone, her companion, hiding among the plants, monitoring every move I had made. If that was it, then I should have been caught and reprimanded. The thought made me chill more.

When I arrived home, I hid the silver tube under my clothes in a carton box. I forgot about it.

The next morning I helped father in the rice fields. Collette and Lolito showed up over the irrigation channel. They called me to play tops. I looked at Father with pleading eyes. He grimaced but nudged his head for me to go.

Collette and Lolito were anxious to know what had happened to me in the mysterious house. I told them everything in detail except for the silver tube.

After my story, Lolito bragged. "I can go alone without your help."

"Really?" I said. "Why you were the first to leave last Sunday?"

"I was just making fun of you," he stammered. It was his alibi to cover fear. He feared the house, I knew it.

"You were afraid," Collette said.

"Enough!" he snarled, casting an angry look at Collette. He faced me. "If you like I can go there now." He stretched up like an athlete and looked across the field to the mysterious house. "Alone."

Lolito wouldn't be able to go inside without our help, so we followed him. It was a risk because we had no idea whether or not the old lady was there. My assumption was inclined to the idea that she was not there. She couldn't be seen on weekdays. And, I thought she wouldn't stay inside for five days doing anything but propagating plants or combing her gray hair in front of a big mirror.

We were cautious as we snooped about the backyard. I felt something strange. The backyard now had only a few containers of plant seedlings. We sprinted like Tom and Jerry to the door. Lolito pushed the door, but it was locked. We then moved to the other side of the house and began climbing the windows. It was Lolito on top, Collette in the middle, and then me at the bottom supporting their weight. I gritted my teeth as I held Collette's legs over my shoulder. When Lolito was able to perch on the window, Collette jumped down.

Lolito frowned as he looked down inside. "There's nothing in here."

"Really?" I said.

"I see nothing," said Lolito. "Just a big mirror."

"What about plants?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Only mirror, no plants." He leaped down and landed like a monkey in front of us.

"Why didn't you go inside?" asked Collette.

"There's nothing to prove you at. The house is empty," said Lolito. "I'm not scared of going inside, but I wouldn't waste my time anymore. The old lady isn't there." He shrugged as if dismayed there was no more challenge.

"I accept that you are brave," I said. "Help me up. I want to see inside."

He knitted his eyebrows but still agreed.

The house was indeed empty saved for the naked huge mirror. I couldn't believe it. I had seen the plants clear as daylight before that day. I hadn't known a truck went there to take them out of the village. Every vehicle that was headed to the mysterious house would pass by our house. Or, maybe they were taken at dawn. But, I couldn't put away the fact that, if that was it, the rolling wheels of the trucks could have awakened us. Last night had been silent except for the chants of cicadas and creaking of bamboos. Besides, no truck that fits in the narrow road could take them on only one trip. I supposed it would take three trucks in one trip or one truck in three back and forth trips to empty the house.

Early in the morning of the next day, I went to the brothers to invite them to hunt wild ducks. Lolito was not around. He had some errands in town. So, it was only Collette and me.

We ran to the creek, twenty meters off Collette's house. The creek was normally the place where wild ducks take a bath before the sunlight could shine on it. We hid behind the bushes, preparing our slingshots. We crawled stealthily to the clearing to take a better view and to have the best shots we could have. There were many of them, the wild ducks. I thought, even though we would not focus on one bird, we could casually hit one.

We shot the wild ducks simultaneously. They scrambled and darted away. Some of them dipped and swam with the current. We hit one, unsure if it was Collette's or my pebble. We rushed to capture the wounded duck, but it limply hopped from rock to rock. With difficulty, it flapped its wings and flew up. We followed it, up the slope, and to the rice field leaving traces of footsteps that quickly vanished in the watery mud. The wild duck escaped.

Then, I heard more flapping to my left. I stopped and looked to where a group of wild ducks fluttered above the rice plants. "We go for them!" I shouted. We pursued the group as they flew heading in the direction of the mysterious house. Preoccupied with the impulse of hitting one, we aimed up at them and released our pebbles.

A glass broke loud and clear. We froze, dead as a stone, looking at each other. My eyes widened more than Collette's, I was sure of it.

"What shall we do?" Collette broke our silence. His pale face turned white.

I considered before we took the move. "Let's go to the irrigation channel," I said.

Our slingshots were swinging in the air as we raced fast to the irrigation channel. We jumped down onto it, splashing in the slow-running water.

"Get down," I whispered in between gasps. Our position reminded me of the movie "The Great Raid". We were like Filipino guerillas hiding from Japanese soldiers.

"What are we doing here?" Collette said in between pants.

"We hide until we're sure she is not there," I said while overlooking the gates.

"And, if she's in there?" he snapped.

"Then, we're done."

"Oh Jesus, Mary, Joseph! I'll get a hot spanking from Father." His white face became sour.

"Don't worry, Collette. Nobody has seen it's us." I assured him to relieve his worries.

"We will lie?"

"Of course. Nobody talks to her about anything. She also does not speak with the villagers." It was a reasonable statement but deep inside I also feared she would learn our unintentional mistake.

We lingered for half an hour, waiting for the old lady to come out. But she didn't.

"We go there," I suggested.

"What?" Collette's eyes fell out, his mouth hung open.

"We'll check the mirror. Maybe it's not the one we broke."

"Are you crazy, Matt?" His words echoed in the rice field.

I put my index finger across my lips. "You might want to get a hot spanking." I blackmailed him.

He looked across the rice field to the mysterious house. I knew he was considering my suggestion. He nodded slowly, reluctantly.

"Good," I muttered. "We need a rope. Stay here." I raced home, rummaged into Father's farming toolkit, and got a rope.

In the mysterious house's backyard, I pitched the rope onto the window so that it flung onto the hinge. I pulled down both ends and tied them together. Then, I rappelled up while Collette was watching out for someone who might see us. I reached up the window and, prudently, I peeked my head in. The first and only thing that got my attention was the fine shards of glass on the ground. It looked like white sugar granules were dumped by ants in a straight line. My whole body trembled with worry and stupefaction. I almost let go of my hold. It was awful. It was unbearable to think such a huge mirror is as delicate as a wine V-glass.

I rappelled down. "We broke it," I said the obvious.

Collette attempted to go up, but I disallowed him. It would just worry him more.

No one saw it was us. I was definitely sure of it. I told Collette to shut his mouth forever if he didn't want us to go to jail. I knew it was not a crime, though. Besides, minors would never end up in jail for a crime. They end up in the DSWD. I also warned him that if his disciplinarian father would learn about it, he'd get spanked many times.

When Sunday came, I didn't have any interest in attending the mass. I knew Collette had the same feeling too. However, Father compelled me to, since I had missed one already.

Before we got inside and sat in our regular chair, I craned my neck among the attendees to search for the old lady. I didn't see her. I didn't feel relieved at first, for I was thinking that she might be just late or might already have taken a seat somewhere not visible from my location. I looked through the crowd of attendees again before the visiting priest started the hymn of Glory to God. She wasn't there. And, Collette too.

Throughout the mass, my thought was about the old lady. I felt guilty for what we'd done. I knew it was the first time she missed the mass. I also thought that the broken mirror could be the reason why she didn't attend the mass. She might have reported it to the police authority in town. After the mass, I dropped by Collette's house to tell him about her absence. He was amazed and a bit relieved.

The next Sunday came and the old lady was still not in the mass. I asked Collette if he would like to join me to venture again into the mysterious house. He agreed with me.

The gates were chained just like the last time we left the house. The hibiscus had grown a lot, eating the cyclone fence. That made us hard to climb and get into the backyard. We got rashes from the newly-grown twigs.

In the backyard, the plant seedlings in the containers had wilted. Weeds contested to spring about. The lower part of the sky-blue walls had been thronged with thick specks of dust caused by heavy rains in the past few days. We strolled around the backyard and I went up the window using father's rope. The fine shards of glass were almost covered with dust. The house was empty. No trace of shoe prints visible on the ground. The door was still bolted. I thought the old lady was gone.

We had unanswered questions. Why we no longer see her? Where was she now? Was she coming back? We concluded that she would never go back into the mysterious house. Maybe she had met an accident and died. Or, maybe one of her family members had passed away and that she was the one to take care of him or her. Or, maybe she just took a rest for a while, a vacation in Boracay.

We waited for another Sunday, but again she didn't show up at the mass. And another Sunday, but the same people we saw. No old lady in a black gown.

Weeks and months flipped by and we no longer saw her. The mysterious house had been totally abandoned by its owner. It stood still amidst the rice fields and, I thought, would remain standing until we grow old. Other kids had learned about the forever-absence of the old lady, so they made it through the mysterious house and played inside. The barangay captain decided to make it a temporary daycare center. He hadn't been able to contact the relatives or friends of the old lady. No one had ever claimed the house, so it was claimed by the local government. It eventually became the barangay hall.

Collette went to school and we had little time to play. Time made us forget the old lady and the mistake we did.

Two years later, father decided we go back to Cebu City. Life in San Roque was a little bit fun, but he realized that family income was not enough to sustain daily needs. We spent no to our wants. In Cebu City, Father would have to work as a jeepney driver and Mother would sell cooked vegetables in Mercado.

The night before our travel, Mother asked me to pack up my clothes. By chance, I saw the silver tube in my cardboard box. It glittered against the electric bulb on the ceiling. The old lady played back in my mind. I saw her scolding eyes. They told me to return the thing I was holding. I flinched the memory of her. I examined the tube by turning it on my palm. I noticed a tiny rectangular button in the middle. I looked at the edges. One edge had a glassy ball which made me think it looked like a tiny deodorant roll-on. The other edge was wholly covered. I was holding it like it was delicate and fragile. I drew it near the light to have a clear look. How does this thing work? I asked myself. The tube also seemed to be a flashlight looking at it from a different angle. I tried pushing down the rectangular button but it didn't click. I tried again and again impatiently until it slid forward.

I was startled. A blue beam flashed from one edge. I dropped the tube on the bed. The beam pointed to the wooden wall, projecting a clear picture of a newspaper FrontPage. The image was clear even if the light bulb was on. It was clear as a glass of drinking water. I was amazed that the beam projected a vivid picture on the wall. As though the picture was alive.

The texts read:

Leyte State Star. Dated September 10, 2135

Dome 5, losing O2

Dome 5 seeks help from Dome 8

Death multiplied due to solar radiation

Dome 5 Prime Leader Flores approves Bill 2550- total birth control

An outbreak in Sector 6 spreads

Flores: Only time travel can save Mother Earth.

Below the last news title I read was a statement, probably from this Flores person, saying, "We travel back in time not to change the past, but just to obtain flora species to save our dying planet."

I picked it up and moved back the slider. The next page of a newspaper showed up.

Catholic devotees' wake in Dome 4 continues

I was confounded.

Mother called me out for dinner. I moved the slider again but it didn't turn off. The picture on the wall kept on changing. Worried that mother would learn of it, I hid it under my clothes inside the backpack and hastily moved out.

I was very anxious to go back to my bedroom to read the strange news, so I rushed my meal.

Father gave me a look to slow down.

"I need to finish packing up my things," I said.

"Matt's excited to go back to Cebu," mother commented with a gentle smile.

I got back to the bedroom and drew out the silver tube. The beam was gone. Pointing it to the wall, I moved the slider. It flashed once with a message "Needs Charging" and suddenly went off. I moved the slider back and forth over and over again, but I just got the same effect until it was probably battery-empty.

In the following days, when we were already in our newly rented house in Cebu City, I was trying to figure out how I could get the odd device charged. I put it outside over the roof under the sun's heat, thinking its power might come from solar energy, but afterward, it still didn't work. I even tried to open it inside, but I couldn't. It's a concrete metal tube. I wouldn't rather hammer it or hit it hard against the cement floor just to break it open. If I do that, I might break it forever. I supposed I know why the old lady left the mysterious house.