Rayji de Guia
“Here come the women with their St. John!”
- from “The Summer Solstice” by Nick Joaquin
Maragondon was an architect’s half-built nightmare and a historian’s half-baked delight—that town of a plaza constantly renovated for heritage and some century-old bahay-na-bato abandoned for modern dwellings—of hostile spirits driven away by prayer and mistresses cursed by brujas, of past and present often meeting as if in a skirmish.
Emilia Malan accidentally moved back to Maragondon with her three sons shortly after her husband’s burial. She had visited her parents, Luisa and Atanacio Hilario, out of grief—or loneliness, she wasn’t sure—and agreed with her mother that it was best for her family to stay. Luisa had then hired someone to help and accompany Emilia to pick up her family’
