Dwarf's Curse

This is my second experience in our house in the province. It is somehow connected to my other story, "Shadows Lurking in the Kitchen." This happened when I was 11 years old.

My mother always wakes up at dawn, finishing all her chores even before everyone gets up. These chores include watering her plants in the front garden. One morning while she was watering her plants, she thought she saw something move behind the shrubs. She freaked out because she thought it could be a snake, which she's really scared of, so she took her gardening trowel beside her and poked whatever it was in the bush. What came out after was something she never expected. As she told us, it was like a breeze passed through her legs blazing fast that she never even got a clear picture of what it actually was. Thinking that at least it wasn't a snake, she just shrugged it off and ignored what happened.

A few days later, she began itching. First her arms, then it went to her entire torso. Next thing she knew she had red marks all over. We thought she might have eaten something that caused her to have an allergic reaction, so we went to the doctor to have her checked. The doctor gave her medication and a list of food that she had to avoid. We were told the marks would disappear in about a week. But they didn't and the rash got even worse. So we went to Manila and had her undergo an executive check-up. Same results, skin allergy. But this time the doctor said the condition has no immediate cure and would just naturally subside within a maximum of 6 months time. I really can't recall the name of her condition, sorry.

They still gave her medicines to take and it really took a toll on us financially since the medicines were expensive. My Dad's sister found out about my Mom and she suggested that her friend, a "faith healer" who was well known in our province, come and visit us. We're not really believers of faith healers or witch doctors but my Mom is very religious. Thinking there was nothing to lose, we accepted the offer.

It was four months into my Mom's condition when the faith healer came. The first step was to steam my Mom by enveloping her with thick bed sheet while a mixture of hot water and oil was placed below her. Then he went around our house, first inside then out the garden and backyard, while chanting something I couldn't understand. When he came back, he said he knew what happened.

It appears my Mom "hurt" a dwarf, old female dwarf, by hosing it down and poking it. We never told anyone about the incident in the garden so we were surprised how the faith healer knew about it. He said we have to offer prayers and kill a chicken as a gift to the dwarf. So we did. A few days later my Mom started feeling better and all her marks were gone after a week.

We don't know if this was because of the offering or just coincidence since the city doctor said her condition will naturally get better after a few months. Nevertheless, mother never did her gardening so early in the morning and even asked permission from her "dwarf friend" before watering her precious plants from then on.

I, on the other hand, kept thinking if this "dwarf " and the shadow I've seen in the kitchen is one and the same. I never told my family about my story by the way.