Leaf and Shadow: Stories about Some Friendly Creatures

By Cyan Abad-Jugo

A collection of stories about some strange but essentially friendly creatures: a homesick anito stuck behind an old aparador; a musical rocking horse carved out of a very special block of wood; a poor kapre blamed by Old Manang for all the misdeeds in Lola’s house; and a shadow man who hosts parties in his shadow world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9789712729287

Book preview

Leaf and Shadow

Stories About

Some Friendly Creatures

by Cyan Abad-Jugo

illustrations by Frances C Alcaraz

ANVILLOGOBLACK2

Leaf and Shadow: Stories About Some Friendly Creatures

by Cyan Abad-Jugo

Copyright © by CYAN ABAD-JUGO, 2008

Illustrations copyright ©

by FRANCES C ALCARAZ and ANVIL PUBLISHING Inc., 2008

All right reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means

without the written permission of the copyright owners and the publisher.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

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125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

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www.anvilpublishing.com

Book design by Ani V. Habúlan

ISBN 9789712729287 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

for my little hobbits,

Megan and Colin

Contents

Behind the Old Aparador

The Wooden Horse

The Kapre’s Mark

High Noon

Behind the Old Aparador

a long time ago, Tito Boy traded a box of rubber bands for a baby monkey. When his friend’s mother came to take the monkey back, Tito Boy hid in the children’s room. With the monkey cupped in his hands, he rolled himself in a banig and stood it up in the corner beside the old aparador. Nobody found him. Later on he showed up for dinner, and his father made him return the monkey.

Well, Daisy stood in the same children’s room now, but no rolled-up banig leaned in any corner of it. The only banig left in the house could be folded into smaller and smaller squares until two handles stuck out, making it look like a bag. Yayang the cook used it for her afternoon naps; it was too hot to lie on her bed, she said, now that it was summer. Anyway, Daisy had no use for it. She simply needed a hiding place as clever as Tito Boy’s. And unlike Tito Boy, she owned her new set of markers, so that she couldn’t be made to return them to anybody.

However, she had to hide them from her two younger sisters, Lily and Marie. They touched everything they could get their hands on in the children’s room, even Daisy’s things—her dolls, books, art paper, crayons, and her brush and clips. Now that Tito Boy had sent her the colored markers from Japan, all glossy and thick in their transparent plastic case, she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone using them except herself.

So Daisy looked under her bed, one of her trusty hiding places. But there, last week, Lily had discovered her collection of coloring books, and had proceeded to muddy every uncolored picture with crayons called black, brown, and burnt sienna. Daisy turned to the huge aparador where all the children’s clothes went. The highest shelf was hers, and she had from time to time buried her stuff under her t-shirts. Unfortunately, last month, Marie had stood on a chair and rifled through all shelves and drawers until she found Lily’s doctor set and the stash of ChocNut Daisy shared with her best friend Kathy.

Their mother had made Daisy share the ChocNut with her two younger sisters, but Daisy didn’t want to share her colored markers just yet.

Pssst, a scratchy voice called.

Daisy took a step back and stared at the open aparador. She tugged at her ears and looked closely at the tumbled piles of shirts on the shelves, the half-open underwear and sock drawers, the metal rod overloaded with dresses and skirts and pants and school uniforms.

Hey, over here, it called again. Not inside, outside.

Daisy spun around and inspected the children’s room—the three, rickety, unmade beds, with all sorts of