Reviewed by Nostalgic Reviewer
Click Mga Kwento Sa Dilim (Stories in the Dark) Issue # 269 Review Part 1 for Part 1.
Palatandaan (Signs)
Written by Maria Cecile Chavez
Illustrated by Danilo Pascual Ramirez
The Plot
A family living in a village is haunted by many signs in one evening. It starts during an evening vigil when sounds start to emanate from the surrounding environment. The grandmother takes these as a sign that something bad is going to happen and warns her grand children. Other signs they experience are lizards slapping the ceiling with their tails and the full moon. Sure enough, some odd looking creature sneaks from under the house but the eldest comes in to whip it with a stick broom. Assuming the creature has left, they decide to move out to another location. One of the children in the family decides to whistle at night. Naturally, the grandmother is there to stop the child from whistling, warning him of the negative effect of summoning bad spirits. The child then asks the grandmother to tell horror stories. The grandmother disagrees again.
The dog does what a dog does: howl. Grandma instructors the eldest to burn their sleepers. The scent will drive the evil spirits away according to the grandmother. Of course she scolds the children to never whistle at night. Dawn arrives and the dog does again what dogs do: dig. Grandma instructs one of the children to stop the dog and for no apparent reason this time, maybe just to keep the ground tidy. Another long night passes and guess what? The grandmother passes away. According to the story, all the signs pointed to this particular event.
The Review
This story has a very simple concept about signs being the signs of something big coming, whether it's good or bad. The only problem with the story is the overbearing presence of so many signs or what is basically superstitions in this story's context. The story sure lives by it's title. But because of the number of these signs, it starts to become unrealistic.
Of course, the grandmother's death in the end made all their efforts to suppress these signs pointless. However, this is a story meant to give readers a scare. Well it didn't work. If a little more work is given to work out the stories and provide better depth to the mythos then the story might work. But overall it's a fun read, something that can keep one busy while waiting for a bus to fill.
~End of Review~
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