Gabriel and the Blue Diwata

Gabriel and the Blue Diwata

by Justine C. Tajonera

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Gabriel. Gabriel was five years old and he did not like to sleep in the afternoons.

Gabriel needed lots of cajoling and compromise before he would sleep. There were afternoons of arguments, tears and shouting. He didn't listen to his Mom and Dad and he also didn't listen to his yaya. Then, one afternoon the blue fairy of sleep visited him. This happened in the early afternoon` when he was so angry that he kept his eyes open despite feeling tired. 

The blue fairy isn't like the fairies in fairy tales. In the Philippines, she is called a diwata and she normally lives in forests or where there are trees. Since there aren't any forests in Pasig City, some diwatas migrated to the condominium swimming pools or the lonely trees lining cement pedestrian lanes. Because of this, the fairy was a little out of sorts and wasn't very benevolent. She was living in the ground floor swimming pool of Gabriel's condominium and she was very irritated by his constant crying. She had had enough. 

So, there she was, in front of Gabriel as he was defiantly trying to keep his eyes open. "Gabriel," she said, "what will it take for you to stop crying?" 

"I want to play!" he shouted at her. She did not find this polite at all. Unfortunately, the city had made her immune to noise, so his shouting didn't make a difference. 

"This is what will happen. I'm going to take you away from here. And you won't be able to see your sister, or your mother and father or your yaya until you tell me that you want to sleep."

Gabriel agreed with this. He wanted anything but to sleep. 

So, the blue diwata of sleep took him to the land of dinosaurs. She dropped him in the middle of the time when the dinosaurs were trying to escape all the volcanoes erupting. To make matters worse, the sky was covered with lots of dust because of the meteor that fell somewhere in the area known as Mexico. So, it was very dark and the only light to be seen was from the molten lava flowing from the volcanoes. All the animals were desperately running away from the volcano and Gabriel had no choice but to run with them. He was getting even more tired but he couldn't close his eyes. 

"Help, blue fairy!" Gabriel said to the air. And the blue fairy appeared. 

"Please get me out of here!" he pleaded with her. She picked him up, just in time to avoid being trampled over by a Triceratops. 

"Okay, okay," said the harassed diwata. This time, she dropped him in the house with the seven little kids. Unfortunately, this was the moment in the story when the wolf was hunting down the little kids one by one and swallowing them whole. The grandfather clock was already occupied and Gabriel knew that this was the safest place to hide. "Oh no!" Gabriel exclaimed. Gabriel was able to run outside to the yard but unfortunately, the wolf saw him and started running after him. Gabriel ran and ran and ran. He didn't see the wolf behind him anymore but he was just so tired. He wanted to close his eyes for a little while but he found that he just couldn't close his eyes. 

"Blue fairy, come back!" Gabriel cried. The blue diwata was back by his side but she was in a very bad mood. This was the second place where she had dropped him and he was already demanding to be put somewhere else. "I'm sorry, blue fairy. I just want to go back to my Mommy and Daddy and sister and yaya," he said crying. His tears were rolling down his face. And the blue diwata was really sorry for him. But rules were rules. And even if she was an unconventional diwata in the middle of Pasig City, she had to stick to what she had said. "I'm sorry, too, Gabriel, but rules are rules. The only way you can go back to your Mommy and Daddy and sister and yaya is by telling me that you are ready to go to sleep."

Gabriel was not happy about this. He still wanted his own way. "No, blue fairy, I don't want to go to sleep," he said even if his eyes were already drooping. So the fairy took him to a third place. It looked like his home but no one was in it. His toys were out of their boxes, ready to be played with. But it was very, very quiet. And no one was home. He tried playing with his toys but after five minutes he felt very sad.

"Blue fairy," Gabriel said to the air once again. "I want to go to sleep." The blue fairy sighed a deep sigh. Finally! So, the blue diwata appeared to Gabriel once again. Truly, she felt sorry for him because he was crying again, but this time not shouting anymore. So, the blue diwata took his hand and made him turn around once. This time, he was really back at home. He hugged his Mommy really tight. "Mama, I want to go to sleep!" he told his Mommy. And she took him to his room and hugged him tight. She read him a short story and then he drifed off to sleep, thinking about how nice it was to fall asleep beside his Mommy. The blue diwata looked on, smiling and invisible.

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Image credit: Anthony Tran of Unsplash

Note: This was part of a fairy tale series that I wrote on 750words.com. 

July 6, 2012

Independent Celia and the Big Party

 Independent Celia and the Big Party

by Justine C. Tajonera

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Celia who was born independent. When she was still a baby, she wouldn’t cry when her Mommy would leave her on the bed or on her mat. She would simply stick her right thumb in her mouth and hold her left ear in her left hand. Doing that would make her feel just fine. 

When she got bigger, she would crawl through and around people if she wanted to go somewhere. She wouldn’t get distracted with blocks, she would just find her way around them. When she learned how to walk, she would open the refrigerator door to look for something yummy or to look for anything to eat. She even climbed a chair onto a table one morning just to get some bread. 

Now, Celia had an older brother, Gerald. Gerald was four years older than Celia. He liked playing all day, getting dirty and having fun. He was very curious and he would make up games and stories all the time. He had a box full of toys and he could spend the whole afternoon just making his dinosaurs destroy cities or making some spaceships blast new kinds of laser beams on the moon. Celia wanted to join in Gerald’s games but she would just wait for him to be tired of one toy before she would play with it. 

Celia was independent. She didn’t like to have to ask her older brother for anything. If he was having fun, then she would have fun too, but in her own way. One afternoon, while Gerald was busy playing, Celia came up to him. 

“Kuya Gerald, are you going to use that yellow block?” she asked him. 

“No.” He replied. 

“Can I have it?”

He thought for a while. Before he could answer, Celia interrupted his thoughts. 

“Well, if you’re not going to use it, why don’t you give it to me?”

“I don’t know if I might use it later.”

“If you’re not using it now, then you can give it to me. I could give it back to you later.”

This made sense. So, Gerald gave Celia one yellow block. 

After two minutes, Celia went up to Gerald and asked him for another block. And then she came up to him again and asked for another block. She did this ten more times and you can guess that she had gathered ten blocks. 

Gerald was getting curious about what his little sister was doing. 

“Celia, what are you making?”

“Oh, just girl stuff. You wouldn’t be interested.” Of course, this got Gerald even more curious. Gerald continued to play but after a while he was just pretending to play and he was now watching what Celia was doing. 

Celia was preparing a very, very big party for her dolls. The biggest part of her party would be the cake. That was why she needed exactly ten blocks. If she had less than that then it wouldn’t exactly be a splendid cake. She made sure that she asked for different kinds of colors because it wouldn’t be any fun if it was just one color. It had to be at least five colors. She had two yellow blocks, two blue blocks, two red blocks, two purple blocks and two green blocks. She was telling her two dolls, one Jamaican lady with black hair and a yellow, green and red bonnet, and one little doll with big eyes and wearing pink pajamas, that this would be the biggest event of the year. 

Gerald, at this point, had abandoned his dinosaurs and space ships because he was really excited about the biggest party of the year. Celia continued her preparations without minding her brother. 

“So, Celia, do you need any help?” Gerald asked little Celia. 

“No, not really.” Celia replied. 

“You might want to have some drinks, you know. A party isn’t a party if no one has juice and iced tea.” Gerald informed Celia. 

“Oh, really?” Celia asked. She considered this for a moment. 

“Well, it doesn’t hurt if Jamba (that was her Jamaican doll) and Lulu (that was her pink pajama doll) could have some juice.”

So, off Gerald went to the kitchen to get some plastic cups. 

When Gerald came back, he put the plastic cups near the cake and then he looked down at his dinosaurs. 

“Uh, Celia, are my dinosaurs invited?”

“Well, no, Kuya. Jamba and Lulu are my guests.”

“But Celia, it’s not a big party if you only have three guests.” Gerald said. He already counted himself as one of the guests even if, technically, Celia hadn’t invited him yet. 

“Well, that’s true, Kuya. How big would a big party be?”

Gerald was also stumped. He remembered that his Mom and Dad did go to parties but he hadn’t counted how many people were there.

“I think we should have ten guests.”

So, Celia and her Kuya Gerald went over the potential guests and decided to ask the dinosaurs and one astronaut to join the party.

That afternoon, both Celia and Kuya Gerald had a grand time. They had eight guests, one big cake and lots of orange juice. After the party, Celia went up to her brother. 

“Kuya, that was really, really fun.”

Gerald just smiled. 

“You know what…we should play together more.”

“Yeah,” her Kuya Gerald said, “that party was fun. And it was nice to talk to Jamba and Lulu.”

After that, independent Celia learned how to be more friendly with her Kuya so they could play the same games. Being independent was great. But having fun with her Kuya was even greater. 

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Image credit: Adi Goldstein of Unsplash

Note: This was part of a fairy tale series that I wrote on 750words.com. 

July 21, 2012

Princess Clara Balia and Her Magical Smile

Princess Clara Balia and Her Magical Smile

by Justine C. Tajonera

Once upon a time, there was a little princess named Clara Balia and she lived in a kingdom called Silver Land. Clara was the second child of a King and Queen and she was very much loved by her parents and all those who knew her. There was just one problem. She didn’t really smile. She just had a curious look, a sad look, a surprised look, an annoyed look, and an angry look. She rarely had a happy look. Or if she did, people generally didn’t remember how she looked when she was happy. 

She was extremely good at the annoyed and angry looks. Because of this, many of the people of Silver Land tried to avoid seeing the princess because she didn’t really make them happy. They were scared of her and they thought that she was always critical of them. 

Her older brother, Prince Gabron, was very worried about his little sister’s behavior. He wanted all the people of Silver Land to love not just him but his whole family. People generally loved the King and Queen because they were just so nice and generous. People adored Prince Gabron because he was a very gallant young boy and he was also handsome, on top of that. He loved doing feats for the people. He would battle dragons that tried to burn up the villagers’ crops and he would go out of his way to be present during feasts and celebrations to represent the King and the Queen. 

Unfortunately, Clara Balia was not invited to any of these feasts and celebrations because the people were afraid of her. They thought she was bewitched and she might bring some kind of misfortune to the event. Her governess, Aya, was also very concerned about this because she dearly loved her little princess and she wanted everyone to love her too. 

“Oh, Prince Gabron, what are we to do with our little Princess Clara?” Aya asked Prince Gabron one afternoon after he had returned from one of the village feasts. 

“I don’t know what to do either, Lady Aya,” Prince Gabron replied. He was tired and talking about his grouchy sister did not make him feel happy either. 

“But I love Princess Clara,” Lady Aya insisted, “She’s just misunderstood.”

“But why doesn’t she take the time to learn how to smile?”

“I do try to help her by amusing her and bringing her to the garden and showing her the kittens and the butterflies but she just watches them with awe. Nothing can seem to make her smile.”

“I have an idea!” Prince Gabron exclaimed. He really loved these moments of insight. He wondered why he never thought it before. 

“I’m going to create a tournament!” Prince Gabron said to Lady Aya. “It’s going to be the biggest tournament in all the land. Everyone will want to come to our kingdom.”

“How exciting!” Lady Aya said, caught up with Prince Gabron’s enthusiasm. 

“I’m going to hold a tournament and the object of the tournament is make our Princess Clara smile. Whoever wins will have lots and lots of gold from my own coffers. What do you think?”

“That’s a splendid idea!” cried Lady Aya. 

So preparations were underway for that great tournament. The whole kingdom was abuzz. Announcements and invitations were sent out to other kingdoms as well. All the women set about to make a great feast. All the young boys and girls were tasked to decorate the tournament grounds. They gathered as many flowers as they could from the orchards and the forests. All the men were tasked to put up tents so that the guests who arrived might be protected from the heat of the sun as people expected the tournament to last the whole day. 

Princess Clara Balia was dressed in one of her best dresses. She was wearing a pink gossamer gown and Lady Aya made sure that her hair was combed and decorated with lots of yellow and pink flowers from the royal gardens. Lady Aya made sure that she wouldn’t be irritated by her clothes so Princess Clara could just concentrate on all the people who were trying to make her smile. The King and Queen were very proud of Prince Gabron for thinking of such a splendid solution for their dilemma. 

Many visitors came from near and far to win Princess Clara’s smile. There were clowns and jesters and dwarves from circuses. There were clever young men and wise old fools. There were merry midwives and all kinds of people who had practiced their jokes and swore by their shows. 

Then the tournament was announced. The problem was that each candidate did not win her smile. No matter what they did, Princess Clara either frowned or looked them up and down. A lot of people were disheartened. There was a very long line of people who tried their best but to no avail. 

Finally, a little boy who wasn’t even part of the tournament approached the raised platform where Princess Clara was seated. He was a sickly boy who hobbled with a cane. And all he wanted to do was give her a simple flower. The little boy went up to her and gave her a daisy that he picked from the field. 

Finally, after a very tiring and disappointing afternoon, Princess Clara smiled a very bright and beautiful smile. The little boy glowed in the warmth of her smile and it was said that his sickness went away as soon as he saw her smile. It turned out that Princess Clara’s smile was a miraculous smile that was why it was very rare. She and the little boy named Luc became good friends and together they brought her smile where it was most needed: to the sick and the needy. Prince Gabron was very happy with this and the royal family lived happily ever after. 

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Image credit: Mariana Yarritu of Unsplash

Note: This was part of a fairy tale series that I wrote on 750words.com. 

July 20, 2012

#4 of 24: A Story in a Story, A Review of Fairy Tale Fail by Mina V. Esguerra

Fairy Tale Fail by Mina V. Esguerra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Story in a Story

I am not like Ellie Manuel, the protagonist. There are elements to her that I can identify with but she's the carefree type. That was why it was fun to get inside her head. That's for starters.

After having read Mina Esguerra's #RomanceClass textbook, it seems that Fairy Tale Fail fits perfectly into the Hero Journey. It felt meta. :-) But in a very fun way. And I was rooting for Lucas the whole way. Okay, no spoilers.

What I really liked about Fairy Tale Fail was Ellie's journey into self-awareness. She realizes that getting what she wants doesn't necessarily mean it's the best path for her. For many people, getting what they want is the be-all and end-all of things. That's the whole point of the journey. But I'm glad it didn't turn out that way. It's nice to see Ellie be who she is and appreciate herself just the way she is. This is the kind of protagonist that I'd like my daughter to read about one of these days.

View all my reviews

Gabriel and the Blue Diwata

Gabriel and the Blue Diwata

by Justine Camacho-Tajonera

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Gabriel. Gabriel was five years old and he did not like to sleep in the afternoons.

Gabriel needed lots of cajoling and compromise before he would sleep. There were afternoons of arguments, tears and shouting. He didn't listen to his Mom and Dad and he also didn't listen to his yaya. Then, one afternoon the blue fairy of sleep visited him. This happened in the early afternoon` when he was so angry that he kept his eyes open despite feeling tired.

The blue fairy isn't like the fairies in fairy tales. In the Philippines, she is called a diwata and she normally lives in forests or where there are trees. Since there aren't any forests in Pasig City, some diwatas migrated to the condominium swimming pools or the lonely trees lining cement pedestrian lanes. Because of this, the fairy was a little out of sorts and wasn't very benevolent. She was living in the ground floor swimming pool of Gabriel's condominium and she was very irritated by his constant crying. She had had enough.

So, there she was, in front of Gabriel as he was defiantly trying to keep his eyes open. "Gabriel," she said, "what will it take for you to stop crying?"

"I want to play!" he shouted at her. She did not find this polite at all. Unfortunately, the city had made her immune to noise, so his shouting didn't make a difference.

"This is what will happen. I'm going to take you away from here. And you won't be able to see your sister, or your mother and father or your yaya until you tell me that you want to sleep."

Gabriel agreed with this. He wanted anything but to sleep.

So, the blue diwata of sleep took him to the land of dinosaurs. She dropped him in the middle of the time when the dinosaurs were trying to escape all the volcanoes erupting. To make matters worse, the sky was covered with lots of dust because of the meteor that fell somewhere in the area known as Mexico. So, it was very dark and the only light to be seen was from the molten lava flowing from the volcanoes. All the animals were desperately running away from the volcano and Gabriel had no choice but to run with them. He was getting even more tired but he couldn't close his eyes.

"Help, blue fairy!" Gabriel said to the air. And the blue fairy appeared.

"Please get me out of here!" he pleaded with her. She picked him up, just in time to avoid being trampled over by a Triceratops.

"Okay, okay," said the harassed diwata. This time, she dropped him in the house with the seven little kids. Unfortunately, this was the moment in the story when the wolf was hunting down the little kids one by one and swallowing them whole. The grandfather clock was already occupied and Gabriel knew that this was the safest place to hide. "Oh no!" Gabriel exclaimed. Gabriel was able to run outside to the yard but unfortunately, the wolf saw him and started running after him. Gabriel ran and ran and ran. He didn't see the wolf behind him anymore but he was just so tired. He wanted to close his eyes for a little while but he found that he just couldn't close his eyes.

"Blue fairy, come back!" Gabriel cried. The blue diwata was back by his side but she was in a very bad mood. This was the second place where she had dropped him and he was already demanding to be put somewhere else. "I'm sorry, blue fairy. I just want to go back to my Mommy and Daddy and sister and yaya," he said crying. His tears were rolling down his face. And the blue diwata was really sorry for him. But rules were rules. And even if she was an unconventional diwata in the middle of Pasig City, she had to stick to what she had said. "I'm sorry, too, Gabriel, but rules are rules. The only way you can go back to your Mommy and Daddy and sister and yaya is by telling me that you are ready to go to sleep."

Gabriel was not happy about this. He still wanted his own way. "No, blue fairy, I don't want to go to sleep," he said even if his eyes were already drooping. So the fairy took him to a third place. It looked like his home but no one was in it. His toys were out of their boxes, ready to be played with. But it was very, very quiet. And no one was home. He tried playing with his toys but after five minutes he felt very sad.

"Blue fairy," Gabriel said to the air once again. "I want to go to sleep." The blue fairy sighed a deep sigh. Finally! So, the blue diwata appeared to Gabriel once again. Truly, she felt sorry for him because he was crying again, but this time not shouting anymore. So, the blue diwata took his hand and made him turn around once. This time, he was really back at home. He hugged his Mommy really tight. "Mama, I want to go to sleep!" he told his Mommy. And she took him to his room and hugged him tight. She read him a short story and then he drifed off to sleep, thinking about how nice it was to fall asleep beside his Mommy. The blue diwata looked on, smiling and invisible.     

The End