AIK: Chapter 3 - Sorry, Too Busy

Christmas 2020, Buscanlan, Cordillera Mountains, Luzon Philippines

Alice is on an airplane ride to the Philippine Isle of Manilla. She is bobbing her head to ‘Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),’ while studying a note from her mother.

‘My Dearest Alice,

When you are ready, travel to the Philippines, to the village of Buscanlan, seventeen hours north of Manilla. There is a tribal community tucked away in the Cordillera rice terraces of the Luzon mountains. Take the ink to that village and look for a Mambabatok Kalinga tribal woman named Apo Whang-od, because she still practices the Batok Tradition. It is an ancient tattoo technique that she has mastered. Ask her to use the blood enchantment of the ancient ones on any tattoo you want her to create and give her a gallon of the ink as payment. Ensure that she knows without a doubt that she is to use the ancient blood enchantment on you for this, or you could bring forth a cursed enchantment called Kulam (Coo-lamm), a darker witchcraft type of sorcery, evil, bewitching and spewing black magic. The enchantment is never to be attempted by anyone other than a master Mambabatok (tattooist).

She is the one that will start you on your journey, your rite of passage. I was supposed to do it, but life chose a different path for me.

– Love you forever, Mom’

An older newspaper article is glued to the bottom of the note from an interview with Apo that reads, “Tattoos are one of our greatest treasures; no one can take them away from us when we die. – Apo Whang-od”

Alice smiles at the flight attendant walking towards her in the small aircraft. She informs her that they are about to land and that she should return her tray to its upright position.

Upon Alice’s arrival in the small village, she meets a young Filipina named Tala and develops a friendship almost immediately from their introduction. Hours later, they are talking about her getting a tattoo from Apo and how anxious she is to get her tattoo from her, but Apo is in such demand that she may need to leave without the tattoo. Tala then reveals that she too is a master tattooist, the youngest in a millennium and that she is Apo’s niece, but she was also her apprentice. She offers to do Alice’s Rite of Passage tattoo but suggests for her to still give the ink to Apo. Alice thinks about it and agrees after several drinks. She gives Tala the picture that she wants and sits patiently to receive the enchantment.

The next two days Alice and Tala travel to Apo’s village where she inspects the work done by her apprentice. She blesses it and offers to do another in exchange for the ink. Alice agrees and Apo creates a tattoo unique to Alice. Tala translates as she speaks to her, then suddenly there is a pause and Tala freezes up like she had seen a ghost.

“Is something wrong Tala?” Alice questions in the awkward silence.

“Ah, no,” Tala quickly chimes in, “Auntie was saying something serious, but not to worry, there is no danger. She sometimes says things that are hard to translate.”

Alice squints and bites her lip at the constant pain pecking into her skin, “Okay, did she say how much longer?”

After a brief conversation in Tagalog, Tala is given an answer, “I have to go get a few more thorns, but she said it would be about a half day more to complete.”

“It has been that already.”

“Yeah, I know, but it will still take that long because of the special ink.”

“But it only took you a few hours to do it.”

“Because I used a needle gun.”

“I know I was trashed and cannot remember most of that day, but I thought you had to do it the traditional way.”

“I did kinda,” she pauses, “that is why Apo is fixing it now.”

“Yeah, but she isn’t fixing the tattoo of Alice.”

Tala stops and looks down at the children playing in the water, “correct, she is fixing my mess. The new tattoo will alter what I did and make it right. I am sorry, for all the confusion Alice.”

Alice smiles and shrugs it off in between the tiny thorn stabbings, “it’s okay Tala,” she winces, “I see it as getting two tattoos for the price of one.”

Following the trip of meeting Apo and returning to the city, Alice is ready to return home. After she arrives there, she is greeted by her aunt at the airport. Once the hugs and greetings are over, they get in the car and head to Alice’s home.

Inside the car, Sylvia breaks the quiet first, “So how was it? Did it hurt at all?”

Alice smiles as she gazes out of the window.

“I take it that it did then,” Sylvia said also smiling.

“It hurt like hell at first, then there was a weird kind of rhythm to the tapping, and it gave me something to focus on. It still hurt, but I paid less attention to the pain and more to the melodic trance the tapping was putting me in.”

“Looks like you got a couple tattoos while you were there.”

“Yep, one of Alice and one to stop her from possessing my body and taking over the world,” Alice laughs while trying not to cry.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Turns out you shouldn’t get drunk and have someone tattoo you.”

“Funny, but that is exactly how I got that tattoo of the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile on my butt.”

“You’ve got a tattoo on your butt?”

“Umm-Hm. The saying next to it was my other drunk friend’s idea,” she turns a bit in the car to show Alice the area where the tattoo was, being ever so careful to not let the driver see that she was not wearing any undergarments.

Alice chuckles uncomfortably as she reads the saying quietly, “I wish I had an Oscar Meyer wiener so everyone will be in love with me,” there is a brief moment of confusion,

“I don’t get it.”

“It was part of the jingle for Oscar Meyer hotdogs. It would have been funnier 30 years ago.”

“Is that why you don’t go to the beach with me?”

“Not at all.”

“I think it may very well be. It is hard to hide. I mean, the sure size of it is - -“

“I KNOW. Still, I was thinking of getting it removed or covered up. What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t. It is a part of who you are. I say keep it.”

“I’ll reconsider asking you that again after the newness of your tattoo wears off and you are no longer have a dizzying intellect from your apparent jet-lag.”

Alice laughs as the driver chimes in, “We’re here Ma’am.”

“Ma’am? He must be referring to you Aunt Sylvia.”

“Obviously,” she says rolling her eyes at her niece.

As soon as the driver is finished with Alice’s luggage, Sylvia says her good-byes and heads off to her house. Alice collapses on her bed and drifts off to sleep.

Present Day

Alice stirs in her sleep, tossing and turning in a sweat drenched bed. The pain on her face seems to be related to the nightmare she is currently having.

Alice watches as a woman peers through the windows of the café in search of someone. She sees Alice and makes her way into the shop. The lady knows her, but Alice is having trouble placing the woman. Then without warning, the woman takes a swing at Alice. Alice dodges but the next one is already following. She protects herself as best as she can from the onslaught of blows that follow, until she is grabbed and thrown through the window and into the parking lot.

“OW,” she adds landing hard onto the pavement. She starts to get up and barely gets out a “can we talk about this?” before she is kicked in the side and launched another six feet into the side of a SUV. She bounces off the vehicle and coughs up a little blood while exhaling heavily dropping down to one knee. The woman’s hands grab her by the shoulders and shoves her back up into the side of the vehicle. She is met with another punch, this one in the form of a right hook and it sends more pain through her body.

Alice is hurt and confused. She has no idea who this dark-haired woman is, why she is attacking her, or why she is so freakishly strong. The lady pulls off the side view mirror like it is nothing and before Alice can react, she hits her with it and forces Alice back down on the ground hard. There is a gash in her head, the blood begins to pour out of this new wound into her eyes. The blood trickling down Alice’s brow starts to blur her vision, then sees the woman standing over her smiling like the Cheshire cat. The woman lifts her right hand up, exposing her palm to Alice. Her fingers are stretched out like she is trying to stop her from saying anything else.

“Speak to the hand?” Alice asks bewildered.

The woman nods her head, and a familiar tattoo comes walking into view, “Hello Alice,” she says with disdain. Alice looks for and calls out for Ellie, but Ellie does not answer, nor is she on her arm anymore, “How are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” The woman speaks with multiple voices.

“Controlling Ellie.”

The smile on the woman’s face seems forced, backed in fear, as a tear falls down the side of her face, “I’m not controlling her,” she says painfully through the smile, “she’s controlling me!”

“Then, resist her, block her out!”

“I can’t,” she speaks in frightening glee, “She has given her power to me, and I promised to never give it back.”

“That’s good news,” Alice says wiping the blood from her face.

“Yes, it is good news for me, but not-so-good news for you.”

“How is it bad news for me?”

“Well, you see - - I have to kill you to keep it.”

The woman laughs and it echoes to mix with the alarm clock going off on Alice’s nightstand. She is drenched in sweat and Ellie asks if she is okay.

“Just had a bad dream is all. It’s over now though,” she turns the alarm off and heads to take a shower.

Alice stands in the shower for five minutes not moving as the showerhead strikes her body with hot water.

In the awkward silence backed in the sound of water falling to the shower floor, Ellie feels the need to say something. This is not Alice, she is never this quiet, “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Alice adds quietly.

“It doesn’t sound like you are fine. You sound differently than you normally do.”

“Sometimes people must process or decompress or try and figure things out It doesn’t mean that they are not all right. It just means they are working through stuff. So, when I say I am fine, it means I am fine.”

“Now you sound a little bit angry.”

“I am not angry Ellie,” Alice spits quickly, then lowers her tone to just above a whisper, “so would you please stop asking me stuff?”

Ellie pauses but notices the streaks on Alice’s face are not from the shower, she is crying, and Ellie feels helpless to make her friend feel better. She does not know what to say or do, all she knows is that it should not be in the form of a question. So, she says what she thinks will help her. She pats her arm and looks up to Alice and says with all the gentleness and concern for her friend’s well-being, “You know Alice, the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup.”

Alice gets a confused look on her face, lifts her head to let the water from the showerhead rinse her tears away, then adds, “what the hell are you talking about?”

“I thought that you were sad, and I figured I would cheer you up.”

“With a commercial jingle?”

“Well, I know that you love coffee and tea, and you like to drink coffee more, which is why I chose coffee over tea. Even though that Lipton tea commercial is surprisingly good, I knew the coffee TV ad would make you feel better than the tea one.”

Alice smiles a little, “hmmph, thanks.”

Ellie smiles back, “anytime.”

There is a calming silence for a moment, then Ellie enters her squirrel mode and speaks up again, “Did you know I can create anything on your body?”

“That is your follow-up?” Alice says with a chuckle, then asks, “Yes, and uh, how is that news?”

“Which question do I answer?”

“The latter, please.”

“It is not really, but do you want to hear something I discovered recently?

“I am naked in the shower, and I cannot escape you, so sure. Why not?”

“No matter how hard I try, I cannot alter how I look.”

“Wow, I did not know that. Sorry?”

“Me too. So, I am forever stuck in this old timey dress and this hairdo from the 1930s.”

A laugh escapes Alice’s lips, she covers it up quickly.

“Did you just laugh at my pain?”

“No.”

“Yes, you did!”

“Okay, I did, but it was more of a with you laugh.”

“Well, that laugh means you are not broken.”

“I am, but I thank you for not letting me dwell on it. It is good to hear your voice.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Ellie scratches her head, “is it good that I have been doing most of the taking?” She shrugs and places her thoughts back on Alice, “Are you feeling better now Luv?”

“I am. Who’s up for coffee?”

“I do not think the shower is a safe place for boiling temperatures. Well, maybe for brewing coffee, but I do not think it is good for the human body,” she gives up trying to figure out the variables and asks, “where do you keep the bathroom beans?”

Alice chuckles and shakes her head. She forgets that Ellie is not there when it comes to what is literal and what is not, “After silly.”

“Oh, okay then. After we are done being silly.”

“In the kitchen, Ellie.”

“I cannot go, until you go, so who’s the captive audience now

“Ellie, when I am done taking a shower and put on clothes, we will make coffee in the kitchen and drink it there. Got it?”

“Oh…., okay…, of course. I.. totally get.. it?”

“You don’t have a clue of what I am talking about, do you?”

“In fairness that is most of the time, but right now, yeah, I am certain that I do not have a clue.”

“Just wait and we will do it together.”

“Okay, that I can do.”

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CHAPTER 1