Read Online Dusk: A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks) by F. Sionil Jose - Free Book Online Page B

afternoon, Apo,” Istak said, bowing in greeting.
    Capitán Berong’s father, a Peninsular, had settled in Cabugaw after serving in the Spanish army and acquired large tracts of land which he had passed on to his children from a union with a mestiza from Vigan.
    “So it is you, Eustaquio,” the capitán said, recognizing the teacher of his daughters. “How fortunate that I should meet you on my way to your village. Now I don’t have to ride that far …” He wiped his face, burnt to a reddish pink. His leather boots were dusty. “I have been riding since morning, visiting barrios—not just yours. I don’t like going around with the bad news, telling people of the misfortune that has befallen them …”
    So what his mother had prophesied was coming true. But how could he believe in auguries after the many years during which he had learned from Padre Jose that much of the suffering in this world was man’s own doing?
    Capitán Berong appreciated beauty whether it was in horses or in women, even if they were the lowly daughters of his tenants. His eyes were on the young widow. “I have not seen you before,” he said. “Who are you?”
    Istak answered for Dalin. “She has just been widowed, Señor. She is staying with us …”
    “It does not concern her then.” The mestizo dismissed her, although his eyes were still on her. “It is about you, your family—and that
sitio
where you live.”
    “Yes, Apo.”
    Capitán Berong stroked his wisp of a beard and turned away as if he could not tell the young man the bad news to hisface. “You have to leave the
sitio
, Eustaquio, you and your whole family. The new priest has been studying his books. He thinks the yield of the land is very low. He wants to give the land, in fact, all the land in your
sitio
, to a new set of tenants. Tenants he likes.”
    The words sank deep. “You are sure that this is what he wants, Apo? I cannot believe that this is so,” Istak said, his throat gone dry.
    Capitán Berong turned to him and nodded. “Yes, Eustaquio. These were his words. If it may comfort you—you are not the only ones. In the other villages—there will be changes, too. Some families he does not want …”
    Istak wanted to say more, but Capitán Berong looked at him with great severity. “I do not speak rashly. You can stay in your village the rest of your life. You can keep the accounts for me and teach my children and the children of my children. It is better this way. Your fate is still yours to change.”
    “What should I do then, Apo?”
    “Go see Padre Zarraga. Perhaps you can dissuade him.”
    “And if he refuses to see me?”
    Capitán Berong seemed vexed with him. He pulled at the reins of his horse and wheeled around. “Tell the others in your village. Their fate is the same, only your family goes first. The rest can go after the next harvest season.” In a while the chestnut horse and its rider had disappeared in a swirl of dust.
    The sun was hot. Istak steered the cart to the shade of a camachile tree. This was where he would leave her and he would then walk back to his village to bring the news.
    “But why should the priest send you away?” Dalin asked.
    “For many reasons,” Istak said. “Maybe he Does not like us.”
    “But why now?” She was persistent.
    Istak did not reply. Yes, there was reason for the priest tosend him away from the church and though he was never told, Istak knew it was because he had seen. But to banish all of them, there must be a more stringent reason other than guilt, for Istak was an unerring witness to a mortal sin the new priest had committed; he was a debaucher, the way Padre Jose could never be. He recalled again his mother’s warning that Dalin was a foreboding. He coveted the oval face, the dark, inquiring eyes. She was truth, she was life—but she had been cast adrift, without moorings, as he, too, had been. If only they could go together wherever the wind would blow them.

CHAPTER
3
    “A re you