Dog Eaters
Dog Eaters
Dog Eaters
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Her words stung. For now she noted an angry glint in Victor's eyes. "They are my
friends, Mariana," he said.
"You should have married one of them!" she snapped back. Suddenly, she
straightened. She heard Sergio's raspy voice, calling from his store across the
street. It was an ugly voice, and it pronounced Victor's name in a triumphant
imitation of a dog's bark.
"Victor! Victor! Aw! Aw!" the canine growl floated across Artiaga Street. Mariana
glared at her husband as he brushed her aside on his way to the window. She felt
like clawing his face, biting his arms, ripping the smelly shirt off his back. "I'm
coming," Victor answered, leaning out of the window. Mariana opened her mouth
for harsher invectives but a sharp cry from the bedroom arrested her. It was her
baby. She rushed to the table, pick a cold bottle of milk, and entered.
In his rattan crib that looked like a rat's nest, the baby cried louder. Mariana shook
the crib vehemently. The baby all mouth and all legs thrust in awkward arms into
FOLLOWERS
the air, blindly searching for accustomed nipple.
The baby sucked the rubber nipple easily. But Mariana's mind was outside the
room as she watched her husband lean out of the window to answer the invitation
of the dogeaters of Artiaga Street.
"Aren't you inviting your wife?" she spoke loud, the hostility in her voice unchecked
by the dirty plywood wall. "Perhaps your friends have reserved the best morsel for
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me. Which is the most delicious part of a dog, ha, Victor? Its heart? Its liver? Its Mga sumusubaybay (9)
brain? Blood? Bone? Ears? Tongue? Tail? I wish to God you'd all die of
hydrophobia!"
"Can you feed the baby and talk at the same time?" Victor said. She did not expect
him to answer and now that he had, she felt angrier. The heat from the unceilinged
roof had become terrible and it had all seeped into her head. She was ready for a Sundin
fight.
The baby had gone back to sleep. Mariana dashed out of the room, her right hand
tight around the empty bottle. She had to have a weapon. She came upon her BLOG ARCHIVE
husband opening the door to little porch. The porch was at the top of the stairs that ▼ 2011 (41)
led out into Artiaga Street. ▼ April (33)
"Why don't you do something instead of drinking their stinking tuba and eating that I am One of the Mountain
filthy meat? Why don't you decent for a change?" People (Macario D. Tiu)
Victor turned her off. It seemed he was also ready for a fight. The glint in his eyes The Dog Eaters ( Leoncio P.
had become sinister. Deriada)
And what's so indecent about eating dog meat?" His voice sounded canine, too,
Querida (Angela Manalang
like Sergio's. "The people of Artiaga Street have been eating dog meat for as long Gloria)
as I can remember."
To the Man I Married (Angela
"No wonder their manners have gone to the dogs!" Manalang Gloria)
"You married one of them."
"Yes, to lead a dog's life!" Revolt from Hymen (Angela
Manalang Gloria)
Victor stepped closer, breathing hard. Marina did not move. "What's eating you?"
he demanded. Change (Angela Manalang
Gloria)
"What's eating me?" she yelled. "Dog's! I'm ready to say awaw, don't you know?"
Victor repaired his face, amused by this type of quarrel. Again, he tried to be funny. May Day Eve (Nick Joaquin)
"Come, come, Mariana darling," he said, smiling condescendingly. Kumintang (isang epiko ng
Mariana was not amused. She was all set to proceed with the fight. Now she tried mga Tagalog)
to be acidly ironic. Ang Pagiging Bakla ay
“Shall I slaughter Ramir for you? That pet of yours does nothing but bark at Pagkabayubay rin sa Krus
strangers and dirty the doorstep. Perhaps you can invite your friends tonight. Let’s ng ...
celebrate.” Rice by Manuel E. Arguilla
“Leave Ramir alone,” Victor said, seriously.
My Last Farewell (Jose
“That dog is enslaving me!” Rizal)
Victor turned to the door. It was the final insult, Mariana thought. The bastard! How
Servant Girl (Estrella D.
dare he turn his back on her?
Alfon)
“Punyeta!” she screeched and flung the bottle at her husband. Instinctively, Victor
turned and parried the object with his arm. The bottle fell to the floor but did not Clay (Juan T. Gatbonbon)
break. It rolled noisily under the table where Victor moment had hunted for his Lines (Lakambini A. Sitoy)
rubber slippers. And If the Heart Can Not
He looked at her, but there was no reaction in his face. Perhaps he thought it was Love (Jose Garcia Villa)
all a joke. He opened the door and stepped out into the street.
The Monkey and the Turtle
Mariana ran to the door and banged it once, twice, thrice, all the while shrieking, (Bilaan Version)
“Go! Eat and drink until your tongue hangs like a mad dog’s. Then I’ll call a
The Monkey and the Turtle
veterinarian.”
Loud after came across the street. The Legend of Mount
Kanlaon
Mariana leaned out of the window and shouted to the men gathered in front of
Sergio’s store. Morning in Nagrebcan
“Why don’t you leave my husband alone? You dogs!” (Manuel E. Arguilla)
The men laughed louder, obscenely. Their voices offended the ears just as the Midsummer (Manuel E.
stench from the garbage dump at the ArtiagaMabini junction offended the nostrils. Arguilla)
There were five other men aside from the chief drinker, Sergio. Downing a gallon Legend of Hundred Islands
of tuba at ten o’clock in the morning with of Artiaga’s idle men was his idea of
The Visitation of the Gods
brotherhood. It was good for his store, he thought, though his wife languish behind (Gilda Cordero
the row of glass jars and open cartons of dried fish – the poor woman deep in Fernando...
notebooks of unpaid bills the neighbors had accumulated these last two years.
Magnificence (Estrella D.
Mariana closed the window. The slight darkening of the room intensified the heat Alfon)
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on the roof and in her head. She pulled a stool and sat beside the sewing machine Footnote to Youth (Jose
under the huge pictures of Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, under the altarlike Garcia Villa)
alcove on the wall where a transistor radio was enshrined like an idol. College Uneducation (Jorge
She felt tired. Once again, her eyes surveyed the room with repulsion. She had Bocobo)
stayed in this rented house for two years, tried to paste pictures on the wall, hung The Small Key (Paz M.
up classic curtains that could not completely ward off the stink from the street. Latorena)
Instead of cheering up the house, they made it sadder, emphasizing the lack of the Love in the Cornhusks (Aida
things she had dreamed of having when she eloped with Victor two years ago. RiveraFord)
Victor was quite attractive. When he was teenager, he was a member of the
The Chieftest Mourner (Aida
Gregory Body Building Club on Cortes Street. He dropped out of freshmen year at RiveraFord)
Harvadian and instead developed his chest and biceps at the club. His was to be
Dark (Delfin Fresnosa)
Mr. Philippines, until one day, Gregory cancelled his membership. Big Boss
Gregory who was not interested in girls but in club members with the proportions My Father Goes to Court
(Carlos Bulosan)
of Mr. Philippines – had discovered that Victor was dating a manicurist named Fely.
Victor found work as a bouncer at Three Diamonds, a candlelit bar at the end of How my Brother Leon
Artiaga, near Jacinto Street. All the hostesses there were Fely’s customers. Brought Home a Wife
(Manuel E....
Mariana, who came from a better neighborhood, was a third year BSE student at
Rizal Memorial Colleges. They eloped during the second semester, the very week The Legend of the Magat
River
Fey drowned in the pool behind Three Diamonds. Just as Mariana grew heavy
with a child, Victor lost his job at the bar. He quarreled with the manager. An uncle Why the Blaans are Ignorant
working in a construction company found him a new job. But he showed up only
► March (8)
when the man did not report for work.
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“Where’s Victor?”
“There!” Mariana said contemptuously. “With them.” The old woman looked out of
the window.
“He is one of them!”
“One of what?”
“The dogeaters of Artiaga Street!” Mariana spat out the words, her eyes wild in
anger.
Aling Elpidia sat down again. “What is so terrible about that?” she asked.
Mariana looked at the old woman. For the first time she noticed that Aling Elpidia
had been dying her hair. But the growth of hair this week had betrayed her.
“Do you eat dog meat, Aling Elpidia?” Mariana asked.
“It’s better than goat’s meat: And a dog is definitely cleaner than a pig. With the
price of pork and beef as high as Mount Apo – one would rather eat dog meat.
How’s the baby?”
“Asleep”
Aling Elpidia picked up her basket from the floor. “Here’s your day’s supply of
vegetables. I also brought some bangus. Cook Victor a pot of sinigang and he’ll
forget the most delicious chunk of awaw meat. Go, get a basket.”
Mariana went to the kitchen to get a basket as Aling Elpidia busied herself sorting
out the vegetables.
“I hope you haven’t forgotten the green mangoes and – and that thing you
promised me,” Mariana said, laying her basket on the floor.
“I brought all of them,” assured the old woman. She began transferring the
vegetables and fish into Mariana’s basket. Mariana helped her.
“I haven’t told Victor anything,” Mariana said in a low, confidential tone.
“He does not have to know,” Aling Elpidia said.
The old woman produced from the bottom of the basket a tall bottle filled with a
dark liquid and some leaves and tiny, gnarled roots. She held the bottle against the
light. Mariana regarded it with interest and horror. “I’m afraid, Aling Elpidia,” she
whispered.
“Nonsense. Go, take these vegetables to the kitchen.”
Mariana sped to the kitchen. Aling Elpidia moved to the table, pushed the dish rack
that held some five or six tin plates, and set the bottle beside a plastic tumbler that
contained spoon and forks. She pulled a stool from beneath the table and sat
down. Soon Mariana was beside her.
“Is it effective?” Mariana asked nervously.
“Very effective. Come on let me touch you.”
Mariana stood directly in front of the old woman, her belly her belly almost touching
the vendor’s face. Aling Elpidia felt Mariana’s belly with both hands.
“Three months did you say, Mariana?”
“Three months and two weeks.”
“Are you sure you don’t want this child?” Aling Elpidia asked one hand flat on
Mariana’s belly. “It feels so healthy.”
“I don’t want another child,” Mariana said. And to stress the finality of her decision,
she grabbed the bottle and stepped away from the old woman. The bottle looked
like atrophy in her hand.
“Well, it’s your decision,” Aling Elpidia said airily. “The bottle is yours.”
“Is it bitter?”
“Yes.”
Mariana squirmed. “How shall I take this?”
“A spoonful before you sleeps in the evening and another spoonful after breakfast.”
“May I take it with a glass of milk or a bottle of coke?”
“No. You must take it pure.”
“It’s not dangerous, is it, Aling Elpidia?”
“Don’t you worry. It is bitter but it is harmless. It will appear as an accident. Like
falling down the stairs. Moreover, there will be less pain and blood.”
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breath.
“Let me go! You are hurting me!”
“Behave you woman!” Victor shook her harder.
Mariana spat on his face. Then she bit on the right arm. She spat again, for she
had a quick taste of salt and dirt.
Victor released her. She moved back, her uncontrollable rage shaking her. “You
threw it away! You destroy it! I paid forty pesos for it and it’s not your money!”
“Forty pesos,” Victor murmured. “That is a lot of milk.”
Mariana caught her breath. She allowed dryly and said, “What do you want me to
do now – cut children’s dresses?”
“You are unnatural. You don’t act like a mother, you want to kill your own child.”
“It’s my own child.”
“It’s murder!”
“Nobody will know.”
“I will know. You will know. And God – and God – will know!”
“Ahhh!” Mariana sneered sontemptuously. “Now who’s talking? When was the last
time you went to church, ha Victor? That was the time the Legion of Mary brought
us to Fatima Church to be married and you fought with the priest in the
confessional. And now here you are mentioning God’s name to me.”
“Please, please, Mariana,” Victor was begging now. “That’s our child!”
“I told you I didn’t want another child. You broke that bottle but I’ll look for other
means. I’ll starve myself. I’ll jump out of the window. I’ll fall down the stairs.”
“Mariana!”
“You cannot afford to buy pills or hire a doctor.”
“I want a child.”
“You men can talk because you don’t have to bear the children. You coward!”
Victor raised his hand to strike her. Mariana offered her face, daring him to
complete his own humiliation. Victor dropped his hand. He was lost, totally
unmanned.
A bit of his male vanity stirred inside him. He raised his hand again, but Mariana
was quick with the nearest weapon. She seized a stool with both hands, and with
the strength all her arms could muster, throws the stool at him. Victor caught the
object with his strong shoulder. The stool dropped to the floor as Mariana made
ready with another weapon, a vase of plastic flowers.
“Go away from me! Get out! Get out!”
Victor went out of the room. Mariana was left panting, giving vent to her anger by
pulling down the plastic curtains and the printed cover of the sewing machine. She
stooped to the table and with a furious sweep of her hand, cleared it of dish rack,
tin plates, spoons, and forks. Then she went to the kitchen and tossed the basket
of vegetables and fish out of the kitchen window. A trio of dogs rushed in from
nowhere and fought over the fish strewn in the muddy space under the sink.
Then Ramir barked.
“Shut up, you miserable dog!”
Ramir continued barking.
Mariana paused. Ramir, she taught. Victor’s dog. A cruel thought crossed her mind
and stayed there. Now she knew exactly what to do. She reached for the big
kitchen knife of a shelf above the sink. Kicking the scattered tin plates on the floor,
she crossed the main room to the porch.
Downstairs, Ramir was barking at some object in the street. Noticing Mariana’s
presence, he stopped barking. Mariana stared at the dog. The dog stared back,
and Mariana noticed the change in the animal’s eyes. They became fiery,
dangerous. My God, Mariana thought. This creature knew! Ramir’s ears stood.
The hair on the back of its neck stood, too. Then he bared his fangs viscously and
growled.
Mariana dropped the knife. She did not know how to use it at this moment. She
was beginning to be afraid.
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Slowly, she climbed up the stairs. He moved softly but menacingly. Like a hunter
sizing up his quarry. His yellowing fangs dropped with saliva.
Meanwhile, Mariana was untying the chain on the top of the stairs.
And the dog rushed into the roaring attack. Quicker than she thought she was,
Mariana slipped the end of the chain under the makeshift railing of the stairway and
pulled the leash with all her might. As she had expected, the dog hurtled into the
space between the broken banisters and fell. The weight of the animal pulled her
to her knees, but she was prepared for that, too. She braced herself against the
rails of the porch, and now, the dog was dangling below her. A crowd had now
gathered in front of the house to witness the unexpected execution. But Mariana
neither saw their faces nor heard their voices.
Ramir gave a final yelp and stopped kicking the air.
Mariana laughed deliriously. She watches the hanging animal and addressed it in
triumph: “I’ll slit your throat and drink your blood and cut you to pieces and stew
you and eat you! Damn you Victor. Damn this child. Damn everything. I’ll cook you,
Ramir. I’ll cook you and eat you and eat you and eat you!”
She released the chain and the canine carcass dropped with a thud on the ground
below.
Mariana sat on the topmost step of the stairs; she put her hands between her legs
and stared blankly at the rusty rooftops in front of her. And for the first in all her life
on the Artiaga Street, Mariana cried.
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