admit it—center of energy.

For the past

A Quest to several months, Nang Moray had been
Recapture hearing about a new healer in the
capital town. The man, whether on
the Spirits purpose or by accident, must have lured
the spirits away from Nang Moray’s
abode. Nang Moray did not know
By Jude Ortega exactly what to do with the other
healer. She decided she should go to his
(An earlier version of this story won place and observe first. She told herself
the first prize at the 2013 Jimmy Y. that if she found out her suspicion was
Balacuit Literary Awards, given to the true, and the man took away the spirits
fellows of the 20th Iligan National with ill intentions, she wouldn’t let him
Writers Workshop. This version first get away with it.
appeared in the November 2014 issue
of Expanded Horizons.) Nang Moray lived in the town of
Esperanza, and Isulan, the capital town
Nang Moray, the best- of Sultan Kudarat, was just twenty
known albularia in half a dozen minutes away. She rode a jeepney and
villages, woke up one day to find the alighted at the public market of Isulan.
spirits gone. She summoned them She was quite familiar with the place,
through her usual chants and rituals, but so she had no trouble looking for the
she did not receive any response. The terminal of tricycles bound for
spirits did not manifest to her in any Kawayan, the slightly remote village
way, not even in the form of a soft where she had heard her rival lived.
whisper in the wind or a faint shadow
darting past the corner of her eye. They
A man in his twenties approached Nang
had left her without any warning,
Moray. She assumed immediately that
without leaving any trace for her to
he was a driver, for his arms were
follow, as though they had not been her
covered with garish-red cooling sleeves
companions for nearly half a century,
designed with black dragons, a recent
as though they had never existed. After
trend among tricycle
several days of calling in vain for them,
and skylab drivers. He asked Nang
she set out to look for her friends.
Moray, “Are you going to
The sixty-year-old albularia could think
Kawayan, La?”
of a number of reasons why the spirits
disappeared, but her biggest suspicion
was that they had been drawn to The albularia was not able to say
another—maybe stronger, she hated to anything and only managed to nod. She
was usually loquacious and would “In a while,” the driver said. “Just two
respond to mundane questions with a more passengers.”
lengthy answer. Her long experience in
handling patients had taught her that
“Ah, Diyos ko!” the father said, his
making people comfortable with her
hand grappling at the wall of the
was the first step in healing them.
vehicle as though he was blind. The
Words, however, failed her this
other hand was pressed against his
moment because the young man had
belly. “I can no longer take this.”
called her “Lola.” She was reminded of
Nang Moray, having seen countless
her age. Though she was well aware
patients in pain, could tell that the
that half her hair had turned gray and
father was suffering from no ordinary
her face was lined with wrinkles, she
affliction. He seemed to be a man who
was not used to being referred to as a
had grown old toiling under the sun and
grandmother. Nang Moray had no
drinking gallons of tuba, and men like
grandchildren, for all her four children
him usually kept their pain to
died when they were too young to
themselves as long as they could help
marry, and her patients, who were
it. If they were crying like a child,
mostly her age or younger, addressed
especially in front of their own
her as “Nang” or “Nanay,” not “Lola”
children, the pain must be equivalent to
or “Iyay.”
having three aching teeth.
The driver led Nang Moray to the back
“Diyos ko,” the father said again. “Hijo
of the sidecar. The front was already
de puta!”
filled. Seated in it were three persons,
two in the main seat and one in the
Nang Moray was alarmed. When men
extra, narrow seat. As soon as Nang
like him called out to heavens and
Moray was seated at the back, she
cursed in the same breath, the pain was
heard the old man in front grunt in pain,
as severe as having ten aching teeth.
leaning on the woman beside him.
She glanced around, looking for spirits.
Nang Moray stared at the horizontal
She wanted to help the old man. But as
mirror attached near the ceiling of the
she had expected, there was no spirit
vehicle, and she saw the reflection of
hovering around. Spirits shied away
the man and the woman. There was no
from crowded, noisy places.
doubt that they were father and
daughter. Their noses, which looked
like the base of a coconut frond, “How much is the fare?” the third
seemed to have sprouted from the same passenger in front, a man in his forties,
trunk The old man groaned louder. His asked the driver.
daughter turned to the driver and asked,
“Aren’t we going yet?” “Twelve pesos per person,” the driver
answered.
“We’ll pay for the empty seats,” the house, and almost all of them later
passenger said. Nang Moray realized he claimed they were healed.”
was a companion of the father and
daughter.
The daughter nodded. “So we heard,”
she said in an equally loud voice. “The
“All right,” the driver said, hopping at doctors in the provincial hospital seem
the motorcycle at once, as though afraid unable to cure Tatay, so we decided to
the passenger would change his mind. take him to Doc Sonny.”
“That’s an additional twenty-four
pesos.”
At first the conversation confused Nang
Moray, but almost immediately she
“No problem,” the man said. “Just figured out that “Doc Sonny” was a
hurry up.” He was seated on the narrow faith healer—the faith healer she was
seat in front of his companions, so he looking for. The family and she had the
had to sit sideways. His body faced the same destination. She wondered why
door, his knees jutting out of the her rival was called a doctor. She
vehicle. Now that his neck was twisted strained her ear forward so as not to
toward the driver, Nang Moray was miss a word in the conversation. She
able to see his face better. He did not didn’t have to exert much effort,
look like the father and daughter, but he though. Unlike many people her age,
looked three times more worried than she was still sharp of hearing.
the daughter was.
The tricycle ran over a bumpy spot,
“Kawayan’s not very far,” the driver jolting up the passengers a few inches
said. “We’ll be there in fifteen from the seat. “Puta!” the sick man
minutes.” The tricycle winded its way shouted. “Diyos ko, puta!”
out of the public market. For some Nang Moray peeked out the tricycle,
reason, the sick old man stopped hoping to see spirits in the less bustling
whimpering. surroundings. The spirits didn’t have to
be her friends. She knew how to ask for
a favor from spirits that she had only
When the tricycle moved off the
met for the first time. Her eyes
highway and started to run on unpaved
surveyed the rice fields flanking the
road, the driver told the family,
road, and her heart leaped when she
“You’re going to Doc Sonny, eh?
saw wisps of smoke gliding around a
Don’t worry, he’s really good.” He
tree. To her dismay, however, the
spoke aloud, so Nang Moray could hear
spirits were pale-colored and shrieked
his voice over the hum of the engine.
at one another. They were young—she
“I’ve brought so many patients to his
guessed they came into existence after
the Second World War—and oblivious “No,” the woman answered. “The
to human pain. ultrasound showed his kidneys are all
right. No stones. The doctor said he’s
got prostate cancer instead.”
“Hold on, Tay,” the third passenger in
front said, his eyes on the verge of
tears. He tried to rub the sick man’s “Prostate? Where is that?” the driver
arm, but with surprising vigor, the sick said. Nang Moray, too, had no idea
man brushed off the hand. what kind of cancer it was.

“Just let him be, Pang,” the woman “It’s a common disease of men
told the man. Nang Moray realized he nowadays,” the woman said.
was her husband.
The man did not seem to take offense
The driver looked uneasy, and the
with what his father-in-law did, but he
woman seemed to relish this. She
turned to the side and looked out the
explained further, “The prostate is
vehicle. He reminded Nang Moray of
found somewhere in the groin of men.
Mando, her late husband. Mando had a
It’s a kind of sex organ, and women
thoughtfulness that bordered on
don’t have it. The ultrasound showed
cowardice. Every time she gave birth to
my father’s prostate has grade four
their children, he would cry as he held
enlargement.”
her hand, while she only gritted her
teeth and grunted in a low voice.
Whenever one of the children got sick, “Grade four?” the driver said. “It
he would be unable to sleep at night, sounds like your father’s prostate is
kissing the kid every now and then and going to school. I thought cancers are
telling him or her to fight, until Nang classified by stages.”
Moray would be annoyed and tell him
to leave the kid to rest. In his last days, The woman said, “The grade has
however, Mando showed extraordinary something to do with how the cells
courage. Tiny worms slowly ate him look, while the stage has something to
alive from the legs up. Every morning, do with how the cancer has spread. My
while he still had strength in his arms, father’s cancer is in stage two, meaning
he would silently drag himself near the it’s still confined in his prostate. Stages
hearth, pick the wriggling creatures one three and four mean the cancer has
by one, and toss them into the fire. spread to other organs.”

The tricycle driver said to no one in “You explain well.”

particular, “I’m sorry. I’ll drive more
carefully. Iyoy is suffering from what,
by the way? Kidney stones?”
The woman beamed. “Oh, I was able to African palm. A scooter was parked in
go to college for a few semesters.” To the front yard. “You’re lucky,” the
show more of her skill, she added, “As driver said. “Doc Sonny doesn’t have
to the grades of prostate cancer, grade so many patients today. Sometimes, the
one means all the cells still look normal yard is full of vehicles, some of them
and grade five means all the cells no four-wheeled.”
longer look normal.”
The family paid the driver and stepped
“I see,” the driver said. “With Doc out of the tricycle. The old man cried in
Sonny, though, it does not matter at all pain again as his companions assisted
in what stage or grade your cancer is. A him. He paused after almost every step.
month ago, he got a female patient with
stage three breast cancer. She was
“Do you want me to carry you, Tay?”
already so thin and weak. Now I heard
the son-in-law asked.
she already sweeps her yard. Doc
Sonny can cure you as long as you
believe.” “Puta,” the sick man said. “Don’t touch
me.”
The daughter said, “Please stop cursing,
“We believe in him,” the woman said.
Tay,” which only made the sick man
“He has also cured someone from our
utter more expletives.
town. We’d rather resort to Doc
Sonny’s care than stay in a hospital.
The provincial has no specialist who The driver, who was watching the
can operate on Tatay. When we went to family, giggled soundlessly. “Poor
the private clinic of a specialist, we man,” he said.
were told we must prepare seventy
thousand pesos. My god, where would Nang Moray couldn’t determine if he
we get such an amount!” was referring to the sick man or the
son-in-law. Nonetheless, she told the
“Indeed, hospitals will suck you dry,” driver, “Cursing helps him bear the
the driver said. “While Doc Sonny, he pain.” She alighted from the tricycle
does not ask for any amount. Donation and handed her fare.
only. Oh, here we are.”
“You’re just here, too?” the driver said.
The tricycle stopped in front of a house,
which was identical to most houses in “Yes,” Nang Moray said. She had
the outskirts of Isulan. The lower half given the driver a twenty-peso bill, and
was made of hollow blocks, and the the young man was taking his time
upper part was covered with weaved counting her change.
“You’re going to consult Doc Sonny?” took out a ballpoint pen and a tiny
piece of paper. She gave them to the
sick man’s daughter. “Please write the
“No,” she said. But realizing the driver
full name of the patient.” With
might ask more questions, she lied, “I
emphasis, she added, “Include the full
mean, yes. I’m having trouble with my
middle name.”
back.” She stretched out her open palm
toward the driver to signify that she
was waiting for her change. Without any question, the daughter did
as she was told.
The driver counted faster, handed her
the coins, and told her, “You came to “I am Doc Sonny’s assistant, by the
the right place. Doc Sonny offers way,” the woman introduced herself.
hassle-free treatment. He’s not your “You may call me Nurse Lydia.”
usual albulario. He doesn’t perform
rituals or ask you to offer something to
Nang Moray’s eyes inspected Lydia.
spirits.”
Her shoulder-length hair looked as
though she had not used a comb since
Nang Moray wasn’t able to say she woke up that morning, and her
anything until the tricycle left. When floral duster had faded from being
she turned to the family, she saw them washed so many times. Detergent had
disappear into the doorway. She obliterated the printed stems that
followed them to the house. connected the pale flowers and light-
green leaves. She did not in any way
resemble a nurse, just as the house did
A woman about forty years old had
not in any way resemble a clinic or
welcomed the visitors to the living
hospital.
room. “Is this the patient?” she asked,
touching the grumpy old man at the
back. The curtains parted, and a young couple
came out. The woman was pregnant.
The couple nodded.
“Oh,” Lydia said. “The checkup is
done.”
“Doc Sonny is inside the clinic, treating
someone,” the woman said, pointing
behind the heavy curtains that covered Checkup! Nang Moray thought in
what should normally be a dining area. indignation. That term is for real
“But he will attend to you in a short doctors only.
while. For the meantime, here.” She The young couple bade Lydia goodbye
fumbled at the pocket of her duster and and went out of the door. The curtains
parted again, and a smiling young man Lydia came out of “the clinic” and
peeked out. He had a deep dimple on asked Nang Moray, “Are you not with
both cheeks. them?”

“That’s Doc Sonny,” Nurse Lydia said. “No,” Nang Moray said.
“My son.”
“I’m sorry,” Lydia said, sitting beside
Nang Moray stared at her rival in the older woman. “I think you have to
surprise. He seemed to be just eighteen wait for a while. It looks like the man’s
or nineteen. condition is serious. Write your name
first.” She gave Nang Moray another
piece of paper and the pen that was
“Good mor—” The young man was not
used by the sick man’s daughter.
able to finish his greeting when his eyes
met Nang Moray’s. She knew that he
sensed something peculiar about her. Behind the curtains, Doc Sonny said,
“W-who’s the patient?” the young man “Teodoro Ogatis Flaminiano.”
asked.
“He’s reading the patient’s name,”
“My father,” the daughter of the sick Nurse Lydia explained to Nang Moray.
man said, standing up from the long “He can diagnose the patient’s illness
bamboo seat. from the name alone.”

Doc Sonny avoided Nang Moray’s eyes “He doesn’t consult spirits?”
and told the others, “Please take the
patient here.” He disappeared again
“He does. He has a number of guides.”
behind the curtains.

Nang Moray stared around the house.

Lydia assisted the family. Nang Moray
She could not see or feel the presence
watched as the old man was slowly
of any spirit.
guided to the other side of the curtains.
Outside the house, she heard an engine
come to life and then fade away. The Doc Sonny was speaking to the patient.
pregnant woman and her husband must “Tatay Teo, I can tell from your name
have left, riding the motorcycle that had that there’s something wrong in your
been parked in the yard. abdomen.”

“That’s true, Doc,” Nong Teo’s

daughter said. “He’s got—”
“Kidney trouble,” Doc Sonny said. exact grade of the prostate, how he was
able to determine the patient’s ailment
without the aid of spirits.
There was silence.

Doc Sonny continued, “It’s grade four

“Am I right?” Doc Sonny said.
leading to stage one.”

“Actually, Doc,” Nong Teo’s daughter

“So it’s not cancer yet?” the daughter
said with hesitation, “we’ve brought
asked.
Tatay to a hospital, and the ultrasound
showed his kidneys are fine. No stones
or any abnormality. His prostate is “It’s not. But your father must be
enlarged instead.” healed the soonest possible time.”

“Ah yes,” Doc Sonny said. “Of course. “Oh, thank you so much, Doc Sonny.
The prostate and kidneys are We were so worried that Tatay’s got
connected. All problems in the cancer. You give us hope.”
abdomen really start from the kidneys.
Oftentimes, the affliction goes down
It struck Nang Moray that the woman
and causes the legs to swell. In your
believed the boy more than in the
father’s case, the swelling did not
doctor in the private hospital. The boy
descend farther and stayed in the
had a different and crude explanation
groin.”
for the stages and grades of prostate
cancer, but the woman took his word
It occurred to Nang Moray that the boy for truth. Nang Moray could not blame
was a quack. There was no spirit the woman. Doctors did not know
around, so he had no guide whatsoever. everything. They did not believe that
He was swindling his patients. evil spirits had something to do with
illnesses, but Nang Moray, having a
third eye and herself capable of curing
Doc Sonny said, “Your father’s
diseases, knew better. As to the boy,
prostate is in grade four.”
however, she could not decide yet if he
truly had a healing power or he was just
“Oh, Doc Sonny,” Nong Teo’s a good trickster.
daughter said. “That’s what also the
doctor—I mean, the previous doctor—
Nang Moray told Lydia, “I can’t feel
told us.”
the spirits.”

Nang Moray was confused. She

wondered how the boy knew about the
“Of course, you can’t,” Lydia said. Inside “the clinic,” the daughter of the
“They only show themselves to Doc sick man asked, “So what do we need
Sonny.” to do now, Doc? How are you going to
cure my father?”
Nang Moray held her tongue. Nobody
in the place knew that she was a healer “First, your father must use a catheter
herself. again,” Doc Sonny answered. “He must
be able to urinate. When you went to
the hospital, the doctor had your father
Lydia explained, “Sonny used to be a
wear a catheter, right?”
nursing student, but he had to stop
because I could no longer send him to
school. Last year, he was stricken by a “How did you know, Doc? Oh, I’m
serious illness. He died of it. But he sorry for asking. I know, spirits are
came back to life after maybe half an guiding you. You’re right. They made
hour. Spirits then started to come to my father wear a catheter in the
him and help him heal other people.” hospital. After a week, Tatay felt better,
so we went home. Then last night,
Tatay felt pain again in his abdomen.
Nang Moray nodded. So that explains
We decided to come here instead of
it, she thought. The boy had some
going to the hospital, for the doctor
knowledge about medicine, and that
might insist Tatay should undergo an
was what he had been using to
operation. We can’t afford the seventy
determine the illnesses of his patients.
thousand the hospital is asking from
He was not truly capable of
us.”
communicating with spirits. The story
about him dying and then coming back
to life was most likely something he “Don’t worry. I’ll perform the
and Lydia had spun. It was an all too operation. You don’t have to spend so
common story among purported much money with me, and I won’t open
healers. In Nang Moray’s case, she up or even just touch your father’s
gained the trust and friendship of the abdomen.”
spirits painstakingly. She started, at the
age of ten, as an apprentice of
“Really, Doc? I’m so happy to hear
a babaylan, the younger sister of her
that.”
maternal grandmother. She found it
difficult to believe that spirits would
liaise with a human being in so abrupt a “Yes, but first, I’m afraid you have to
manner as what happened to the boy. go back to the hospital. Have a nurse
She saw a glimmer of hope. The boy put a catheter on your father and then
had not taken away her friends, and she come back here tomorrow for the
still had a chance to find them. operation.”
“We’ll do that, Doc. Thank you. But The others behind the curtains were
could you do something right now to also talking in panicked voices.
ease my father’s pain?” Forgetting where she was and why she
was there, driven by a desire to help,
Nang Moray rushed to “the clinic.” She
“Yes, I’ll give your father first aid.”
gasped when she parted the curtains.

Nurse Lydia stood up and told Nang

Dark haze was swirling around the sick
Moray, “Please excuse me. Doc Sonny
man, and the other human beings,
needs my assistance. Don’t worry, the
including Doc Sonny, seemed unaware
first aid normally doesn’t take much
of the malevolent presence. The boy,
time. It will be over in a minute.”
muttering something useless, was
pointing his two outstretched fingers at
Nang Moray nodded, and when Nurse the sick man’s exposed abdomen. “Let
Lydia had gone behind the curtains, she me do it,” Nang Moray said, brushing
stood up too. She had to leave now. She aside the boy’s hand. She heard
no longer had any business in the protests, but she blocked out everything
house. When she reached the doorway, else in her senses.
however, a cry of pain stopped her in
her tracks.
She might be unable to summon good
spirits, but driving away evil spirits was
“Don’t touch me!” the sick man another thing. She took out the tiny
shouted behind the curtains. bottle that was always slung around her
neck and hidden under her blouse. She
“Tay,” the daughter said, “you have to then pulled open the cap, poured a drop
get up. We have to go back to the of coconut oil from inside the bottle to
hospital.” the tip of her index and middle fingers,
and with the oil made a sign of the
cross on the sick man’s abdomen.
“It hurts,” the father said. “God, it While making the sign, she repeatedly
hurts!” He then uttered a string of uttered a phrase from the Latin version
expletives. of Our Father. The haze gave out a
shriek and, in the form of a horned
As the sick man cursed, Nang Moray serpent, darted out of the door at the
heard thuds and creaks and saw the back of the house. The sick man
curtains shake. The man must be whimpered and, still conscious,
pounding with his fist the bamboo bed collapsed on the bed.
he was lying on. The daughter wailed
in distress, asking his father to stop and The other people in the room stared at
imploring Doc Sonny to do something. Nang Moray in bewilderment.
“It’s gone,” Nang Moray said. “The Nang Moray stopped walking. “I don’t
bad spirit has left.” see them.”

“It’s true,” the sick man said. “The pain “They’re not here right now. They left
has stopped. Am I healed now?” when you arrived.”

“No,” Nang Moray said. “Bad spirits “What a convenient excuse.”

feed on the illness of a human being.
They will come again. For them to go
“I’m telling the truth. I still have so
away completely, your physical malaise
much to learn. I sometimes don’t know
must be eradicated first.”
why spirits behave in a certain way.
Maybe you can help me.”
“Who are you?” Lydia butted in.
Nang Moray continued walking.
Nang Moray was reminded that she
was in the house of other people. “I-I’m
“Iyay, please!”
sorry,” she stammered. “I shouldn’t be
here.”
“Let me leave!”
The boy touched Nang Moray on the
arm. “You’re a healer,” he said. When Nang Moray reached the road,
there was no tricycle in sight, so she
kept on walking, not minding the dust
Nang Moray pulled away. She turned
and the heat of the sun. The boy had
to the family who had been with her in
stopped bothering her, but even if she
the tricycle. “Go to the doctor,” she
didn’t look back, she knew that he was
said. “Or to another healer.” She then
watching her walk away. The silence
rushed out of the room.
told her so.

The boy followed her. “Iyay, please,”

After a few minutes, a tricycle stopped
he said. “I want to know you.”
beside Nang Moray. “To the market?”
the driver asked. Without answering,
Still walking fast and without looking Nang Moray stepped into the vehicle,
back, she told him, “Stop fooling and as soon as she was seated, the
people!” driver asked her again. “Is your
checkup over?”
“I’m not fooling people. I’m really a
healer. I have guides.”
It was the same tricycle that she had medicine. For that, we go to Nong
ridden earlier. “Yes,” she told the Ontit in Bagumbayan. He doesn’t want
driver. “The checkup was quick.” to be called ‘doctor,’ but he acts more
like a doctor than Doc Sonny. He
checks your eyes and mouth and gives
The tricycle sped up. The driver said, “I
out prescriptions.”
went back to Doc Sonny’s house to
wait for your fellow passengers earlier,
but Doc Sonny said they’re staying “He knows the name of tablets?”
there for a while. He told me to go after
you instead. Thanks to him, at least I
“Yes. Tablets, capsules, syrups. And
have one passenger on the way back to
not just paracetamol or mefenamic
the market.”
acid, mind you. Even the ones that are
hard to spell.”
Nang Moray nodded. She was in no
mood to talk to the driver, or to anyone
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
for that matter, but he was quite
garrulous. He asked, “How did it go?
The checkup.” “No. Aside from having a guide, if you
know what I mean, Nong Ontit is quite
familiar with medicines. He used to
She lied. “Doc Sonny just gave me a
work in a pharmacy. Similar to Doc
bottle of coconut oil. He instructed me
Sonny. He was a nursing student before
to apply it on my back every night.”
he died and came back to life. Don’t
you find it interesting? There’s a new
“That’s weird. Doc Sonny does not trend among healers now, especially
usually give anything to his patients. the popular ones. They know some
My wife and I go to him regularly. He science. They’re more like doctors than
just points at the afflicted part of the albularios. I think gone are the days of
body, chants some inaudible prayer, smelly ointments and chicken
and then gives us a list of food that we offerings.” The driver chuckled.
shouldn’t eat.”
“But there are still a lot of good old-
Nang Moray opted not to comment. fashioned albularios,” Nang Moray
She pretended to be busy looking at the said, trying not to raise her voice.
view beside the road. “Have you heard of Nang Moray?”

“Doc Sonny is a good healer.” The “From Esperanza?”

driver kept on talking. “But sometimes
my wife and I feel we really need
“Yes.”
“I know her. My mother used to go to remained leaning on the window, her
her. But I don’t. I hope you’re not her forearms resting on the sill, her chin
friend or relative”—the driver chuckled resting on her forearms. She had no
again—“but I trust Doc Sonny and enthusiasm to greet someone she would
Nong Ontit more. Nang Moray is a has- only send away in a while. The person,
been. Only old people and those who for his part, remained standing in
live in the boondocks continue to trust silence, as though patiently waiting for
her methods. Why, have you been her her to finish her waking dream.
patient?”
When Nang Moray eventually stared at
“N-no,” Nang Moray said. “I just heard the stranger, her jaw dropped. It was
of her.” Doc Sonny. She was not surprised to
find out that it was he. She was
surprised that he looked so young—
When she reached her home, Nang
younger than she remembered him to
Moray once again called the spirits, but
be—even if his face was serious and his
none of them appeared. She sat near the
youthful dimples were not shown.
window and stared at her yard. There
had been days when it was crowded
with vehicles, some of them even four- She opened the door, and he greeted
wheeled, but now it was empty, and she her, “Good morning, Nang Moray.”
thought with dread that it would be so
from then on.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but I cannot
entertain visitors today.”
For most of the day the following
weeks, Nang Moray spent her time
“I am not alone,” he said. She frowned,
gazing out the window, reminiscing
not understanding what he meant, and
about her heydays as an albularia,
he explained, “I was telling the truth.
wishing for her spirit friends to
They went away when you were
reappear gliding toward her. She swore
coming to my house, and they came
to herself that if they did come back,
back when you left.”
she would take them without any
question. She would work with them
again as though they had never left. She found his statements still too
cryptic, but before she could clarify
further what he had said, the wind blew
She had to refuse her visitors who came
and the spirits that she had been
to be healed, and their number was
looking for appeared. So the spirits had
dwindling. When one day she sensed a
indeed gone to the boy.
person standing in her yard, she did not
bother to even look at him. She
The spirits did not come close to her or to be her apprentice. When she found
go inside the house through the door or her voice, it was quivering and full of
windows, but they encircled the humble spite. “So you’re not only keen on
structure, as though inspecting a stealing the spirits. You want me lose
property that they had abandoned but my place among healers. You want me
still considered their own. to lose everything.”

“Come in,” Nang Moray told Doc “I am not going to replace you, Nang. I
Sonny, and as soon as the visitor was am only asking you to share your
seated, she said, “Are you giving them knowledge with me, not to transfer it to
back to me?” me.”

“But, Nang Moray,” Doc Sonny said, “All the same. Without the spirits, I
“I cannot give back what I have not can’t heal serious illnesses. I’m reduced
taken away. The spirits came to me of to a manughilot, someone who kneads
their own accord.” aching muscles. Have you thought of
that?”
“But, Nang, the spirits have decided. I
She had a feeling that he was telling the
can’t make them go back to you.
truth, but her heart was filled with
Perhaps you can do something to make
rancor for him. “I do not believe you,”
them go back to you. I won’t prevent
she said. “You did something to lure
that from happening. But as long as
the spirits to your house. In any case,
they want to be with me, I’ll accept
you can let them go. They will come
them. I’ll take care of them.”
back to me.”

“Hah! You don’t know what you are

“They won’t go back to you. They
talking about. Keeping spirits in your
won’t go anywhere else.”
stead takes more than lighting an
incense or guarding a tree for them.
“So why are you here?” You have to give your life.”

“There are so many things I still don’t “I’m willing to spend the rest of my life
understand. I need someone who will healing other people if this is what God
teach me. I need your help, Nang wants me to do.”
Moray.”
“I’m not being metaphorical. The
Nang Moray was struck speechless. woman who taught me to be
She had not entertained the possibility an albularia was killed by evil spirits,
that the other healer would come to her and she was a babaylan. She was a
powerful healer. She knew the ancient that can be defeated by Catholic rituals
arts of healing. But she was still and Latin prayers. You can’t see those
defeated. The good spirits were not able kinds of spirits—”
to save her. The same thing might
happen to you.”
“I saw it when it was fleeing,” Doc
“It didn’t happen to you. Clearly you’re
Sonny interrupted. “It looked like a
no ordinary albularia. You’re also a
huge snake and had horns.”
babaylan. And if evil spirits were not
able to defeat you and you share with
me your knowledge, then I will be “All right. But your third eye isn’t
spared from meeting a tragic end.” strong enough yet to see it while it was
still coming, and you don’t know the
rituals against it.”
Nang Moray shook her head. “I am not
a babaylan. I am not worthy of such a
name. Though I am still alive, my fate With his silence, Doc Sonny admitted
was worse than that of my master. The that Nang Moray was right. She
evil spirits killed my husband and our continued, “I’m not saying that I will,
four very young children! Now be but I can teach you those rituals. I know
stubborn and sacrifice your mother’s how to defeat, or at least drive away,
life.” spirits that came into existence as far
back as seven or eight hundred years
ago. The problem is that, as far as I
Doc Sonny grew pale. For the first time
know, no one can teach you to fight
since he talked to her, Nang Moray saw
ancient spirits. They no longer abound
him waver. “S-surely, there’s a way,”
and not many of them are malevolent,
he said. “These things need not
but our lack of knowledge makes us
happen.”
healers and our family and patients
defenseless against them.” Nang Moray
Nang Moray didn’t know if her heart thought that with her last statement, she
was touched with pity for the young sounded as though she was recognizing
man or she wanted to scare him more Doc Sonny as a legitimate healer, as
into giving up. She decided to give him someone who belonged to the age-old
an explanation, to let him in on some family of babaylans. She didn’t want
babaylans’ secrets. “Healers will the young man to have such an
always be vulnerable,” she started. impression, so she added, “You don’t
“That’s because there are different have to feel responsible for the spirits.
kinds of spirits, and a healer must know If you don’t want to keep them and
all of them well. When I was in your they deem me no longer fit to take care
house, the spirit I drove away from of them, they can look for another
there came into existence during the person. For every generation, there are
Spanish occupation. It was something
always a few people who are born with Doc Sonny smiled. With his dimples,
a third eye.” he looked so young and sweet and even
guileless. She could no longer
understand why she had considered him
“But . . . Maybe in other parts of the
a threat. “And perhaps,” he said, “one
country, there are babaylans there who
generation was unwilling to learn from
know how to fight ancient spirits.”
their predecessors or did not brave the
danger that came with the calling.”
“I’m afraid the knowledge has been
completely lost. I went to Panay and
“You know where to find me when
Negros once to look for such a person,
you’re ready.”
but I didn’t find any.”

Doc Sonny nodded. She watched him

Long silence followed. When Doc
walk away, the spirits gliding around
Sonny opened his mouth, he said,
him, stirring the wind and causing the
“Thank you, Nang Moray, for talking
leaves to rustle. Now she knew: he was
to me. I think I need some time to think
not her rival; he was her successor. He
over matters.”
was not the other healer; he was the
new healer. She did not call the spirits
Nang Moray nodded. to come back to her. She whispered
instead, “Guide him. Give him the
She led him to the door. From several courage that he needs, just like what
directions, the spirits floated and you did to me when you found me.”
formed a cluster in the front yard, She then bade them goodbye.
waiting for their new friend. When Doc
Sonny was about to turn away, Nang
Moray was suddenly gripped with fear
that he would not come back. It dawned
on her that there was something greater
at stake, something greater than her
pride. “Perhaps,” she said aloud, and
waited for him to face her. When he
did, she continued, “Perhaps the
babaylans themselves were to blame.
At some point in history, maybe one
generation refused or failed to pass on
their knowledge to the next.”