The four women realized that what Renaldo offered them was not beneficial.
"He gave us a clear way out," Lorna said. "As long as we don't tell anyone, he won't harm us!"" That's not true," Fredlyn chimed in. "Even if we say no and we don't tell anyone, he can't take that chance. He'll have to kill us and all of our families because he can't be found out."
"We give in then," Dolores said, deflated.
"It won't be so bad," Estralita tried to make them see reason. "We'll have eternal life."
"Even then, we won't age, but our families will. In a few years, everyone in the Ewa villages will begin to notice! Then what do we do?" Dolores argued.
"We'd have to move to somewhere where people don't know us," Fredlyn pondered. "We'll be like that for the rest of our lives."
"No, we won't," Lorna added. "We'll be worshipping Renaldo and making offerings for the rest of our existence. We'll never be free of him, and if we kill him? We age and die."
~
A short time later, the four ladies gathered early at the general store and spoke to Renaldo in the fresh bread section. They agreed to his terms. To this, Renaldo assented and said that the offerings would be required at their next Mah-Jong meeting. At that meeting, laid out on the table were large plates of Humba. Binignit, Moron, Suman, Lechon, Kinilaw, and Chicken Inasal. When Renaldo entered the living room and saw the offerings, he flew into a rage until his top half broke off and the Aswang appeared!
“I am not an Anito, or a Diwata! I am an Aswang!” Renaldo screamed. "Have you been away from your province for so long that you forgot what offerings are for an Aswang???! You bring me human blood or the blood of an animal! Go find me my offerings now!"
The four ladies fled the house and ran off into the night, trying to figure out how to fulfill the impossible demands of an Aswang.
Between 1985 and 1986, things in the 'Ewa plantation villages were changing in a societal manner. The old ways were still present but slowly phasing out at the same time. A newer kind of people were moving into the upcoming developments on the opposite side of Renton Road. People who weren't a part of the plantation era knew nothing about hard work and surviving brutal work conditions. They had no respect for the old ways and were often very intrusive and self-serving. What these invasive newcomers also dared to do was form neighborhood watch teams that roamed the streets of their community to ensure everyone and everything was safe. That alone made it difficult for the four ladies to obtain a victim for Renaldo. They could give Renaldo specific homes and situations where he might be able to receive offerings on his own. At first, he wasn't happy about it, but when the influx of new people began to overcrowd his general store, he knew that what the four women said was true. The Mah-Jong games continued, and his hunt for food also became very covert. At first, he was repulsed by the influx of outsiders, but then he realized that he might have to expand his search. So, why not befriend them?
Soon, a new Mah-Jong game surfaced in the new neighborhood, specifically in a place called Thompson Village. The latest group of Filipino women had cuckold husbands who were at their beck and call, giving them limitless freedom as to what they could do, where they could go, and who they could see. They were not at all like the previous four, troubled and laden down with husbands who didn't want to come home. Renaldo offered his place for Friday night Mah-Jong, where he allowed this new group of women to also bring along their boyfriends if they wished.
One morning, Estralita and the girls met at the intersection of Renton and Auwaha and walked together to the general store. They gossiped along the way about trivial matters, but upon entering the store, they greeted Renaldo, who was busy at the cash register. He waved to them but continued working the cash register. The line was as long as it was in the beginning, but not so bad when the four women got there. In front of them was another group of four Filipino women who were entirely made up and ready for a night on the town, except it was ten in the morning. After making their purchases, one of them offhandedly made a remark to Renaldo. "Bye, Rey! Mah-Jong you this Friday!"
Estralita and the girls looked at one another, but Fredlyn raised her finger to her mouth. "Don't say a word, just act like nothing. I'll tell you after!"
Pleasantries were exchanged, and the women left the general store. "Let's go to my house, right now," Fredlyn said. "We can't talk here."
~
"Who else has been sleeping with Renaldo?" Fredlyn asked with her hand raised. "C'mon, who else?"
Lorna raised her hand. "I wanted to make sure that he'd favor me over the rest of you."
"Bitch," Estralita scoffed while raising her hand.
"Not me," Dolores confessed. "I only love one man, and that's my husband. There's no one else for me. I guess I'm not favored."
"Out of all of us, he respects you the most, Dolores," Fredlyn said. "Now, we know why."
"So he's sleeping with those other women we saw just now?" Estralita asked. "You think they're worshiping and feeding him, too?"
"They have to be," Fredlyn replied. "That would explain the missing persons posters all over the neighborhood."
"It's a new generation," Lorna agreed. "They don't give a shit."
"So, what happens to us, now?" Estralita asked. "Does he get rid of us for this new batch of bitches, or what? Are we even useful to him anymore, since we can only bring him stray dogs and cats and point him to the occasional lady at the bus stop by herself and four in the morning?"
Estralita's question was answered by Renaldo's own carelessness when, on one late afternoon, early evening, in his form as the Aswang, he sat in the branches of a mango tree, fronting a house on Ho'opi'o street. He was eyeing closely the young, very pregnant wife lying on her bed. Her embryonic juices called to him, begging to be siphoned through her belly button and into his waiting mouth. Little did the Aswang know that the woman's husband was climbing that same tree to retrieve a mango for her.
~
That following Wednesday, at the Mah-Jong game, everyone sat in shock as Lorna, who was twenty minutes late, finally arrived looking worn out. "I need help carrying something from my car. Do you mind?"
Everyone followed her out, except for Renaldo, who remained indoors. When the four women returned, they were dragging something into the living room. It looked like a large, oversized garbage bag, but really it was a body bag. "I started working part-time at the hospital. I didn't ask my husband if I could work; I just told him I was, so he had to come home after work to watch our kids. No more bars in Waipahu for him. I'm good friends with the medical examiner because her family is from Sequior, just like us."
Lorna zipped open the body bag, and there lay the body of a middle-aged Portuguese woman. Just killed in a car accident. "Her chest cavity is crushed, but the blood is still fresh. Go ahead," she gestured to the newly dead corpse. "Take your offering."
Renaldo took his Aswang form and began to devour the body.
"You saved us, Lorna!" Estralita thanked her.
Lorna pulled away and pushed Estralita. "This is from me, and me only, Renaldo, so you know that I'm devoted to you."
The other three stood by, shocked at Lorna's admission to her own selfishness. When the Aswang was finished and it took its form as Renaldo, he went to the sink and wiped his face clean. Returning to the living room, he said, "The rest of you ladies have your work cut out for you. How are you going to top this? You'd better figure something out."
The three ladies, now mortified that they'd been betrayed and that Renaldo, who was not his usual jovial self, who was always the voice of reason, was now nothing more than a monster in every sense, but it wasn't over.
"I'm sorry for being so selfish, my dear," Renaldo said to Lorna. "Please indulge yourself."
Lorna's top half broke off, and out came her Aswang form.
~
It was Estralita, Fredlyn, and Dolores now. Lorna was lost to them; she'd become like Renaldo, and perhaps in that manner, therein lay the real immortality. Who is to say, however, if that's what Renaldo eventually planned for them? One early morning, the three met at the bus stop on Fort Weaver Road.
The Aswang appeared flying around the bus shack trying to attack them, but it wasn't successful once the bus rolled up with its bright headlights.
They were heading to the airport where they would meet their husbands and children.
The three were heading to Los Angeles to live with their families and be rid of 'Ewa Villages once and for all. A short time later, news had come to them from a cousin from the 'Ewa community that Renaldo's house had burned down during a Mah-Jong game. Five other women who were there also died in the fire. It was a tragic event, but in the aftermath, human remains were found buried throughout the property. Not just in the yard, but under the house. Did Estralita, Fredlyn, and Dolores now have a desire to return home and resume their lives on the 'Ewa plantation? Not entirely. If an Aswang can ingratiate itself into the 'Ewa Community, then who knows what other creature from the Philippines might be living among them?
@publicdomain
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