Eba

Eba was born to a beautiful mother whom a priest could not leave alone. She consented to his advances because she needed his support in education and a roof over her head in the monastery. But when she became pregnant she was told by the priest to hide in the monastery for nuns on the mountains of Benguet.

Eba’s mother thought her daughter would come out with horns on head instead of a garland of flowers, like the statuettes in the church of the priest because she was a woman of sin. But she came out smelling of Ylang Ylang and was marked with a beautiful flower on the back of her shoulder. Her mother, however bled to death having spilt her first instance of breast milk on the lips of her child.

The child grew up in the mountains where Ylang Ylang abounded to soothe unwed mothers whom they took in. They were usually love children of priests and their servant women. Her mother must have inhaled enough of this rare flower as she waited for her due to give birth.

Eba was always marked by dirt of the soil for she always played outside instead of the hand me down dolls for children of her kind. She ate cakes of mud because they tasted raw and true. She was hungry for honesty. When she asked the nuns about her mother, they simply told her that her mother was the wife of a farmer who loved the heady loam of the soil where he planted rice in the terraces carved on the side of mountains.

Eba would crush the Ylang Ylang and painted flowers from the juices on parchment papers which she stole from the desk of the prioress who always secretly knew and allowed this to go on, marveling at the flowers the child could paint from mere effusion of their flowers.

Soon, the child was a young woman who painted frescoes on the walls of their monastery. She was apprenticed by no less than a master painter of the country who climbed the mountains of Benguet to witness the wonder of the young woman who could paint swirl flowers with such detail and whimsical quality it delighted everyone at the nunnery. Eba was considered a child prodigy who studied how to paint by herself by studying old books on the shelves of the old library. She would paint while the cold wind whipped her hair about for she kept it free from being tied down.

Eba painted flowers as huge as humans on their walls and since she painted using the emulsions of flowers, they always smelt strongly of their scent that filled the halls of the nunnery. Children marveled at the huge flowers and soon she was teaching them herself on how to extract juice from the flowers to paint whatever their hearts desired.

Eba could tell the children painted from their dreams and they were always pleasant dreams because they could smell the flowers everywhere including the flowers they hid inside their pillows at night.

The frescoes she painted were of female saints and she dreamt of being one herself. But, she was pulled from the nunnery by a doctor who wanted her for his wife. He would come to the mountains to alleviate the sick and the dying nuns. There he witnessed the beautiful flower paintings and asked to meet the beautiful painter of such flowers. He was immediately entranced by her beauty and asked the nuns for her hand in marriage.

A carriage was sent to the mountain nunnery and soon was asked to pack her few belongings to bring with her to her future husband. The nuns insisted it was all meant for her own good and that she could paint much more varieties of flowers with the good doctor given he had a garden of flowers which she surely would find a delight.

Indeed the garden was a sight to behold, surrounding his large house which he maintained alone. He helped her down from the carriage and led her to her room which was filled with various fruits and flowers in a kaleidoscope of colors which filled her spirit with gratitude for being delivered to this place which made her spirit soar because she was overwhelmed with gratitude and love.

They were married in a little church outside town and she wore a lace gown passed down from generations of wives of doctors in the family. The church was filled with Ylang Ylang flowers because she requested it from her future husband.

But at night, after his duties to his wife, he would leave the house and would mysteriously take the carriage and disappear for the rest of the night, slipping back into their marital bed before the crack of dawn.

One night as they both sat down for dinner, she pulled an Ylang Ylang from the bouquet in the middle of the table among the fruits and sweet meats. She then proceeded to eat it one by one, to which the doctor ran from his end of the table aghast and pumped her stomach for her to vomit the flowers what she took in.

That night, the doctor bathed her in an emulsion of flowers and sponged her back with the mark of a flower. He kissed the flower on her back and wrapped her in a thick towel.

Ever since then, he never left their marital bed at night and the pain of that night dissipated with the arrival of a baby boy which enjoined them together enough to later read their son’s novel as a testament to his parent’s love for each other.