This month, I have been participating in Nathalie de los Santos's workshop, Writing the Imaginary: Reclaiming Filipino Folklore Through Writing. During the first workshop, we shared our favorite tales, Filipino or not, and were prompted to use it as inspiration for a short story. Because I had previously posted about why pineapples had many eyes, I wrote the following flash fiction:
"And that's why you should always look with your eyes, not your mouth," lola said, chewing on a pineapple.
Isabelle looked at her grandma incredulously. She had so many questions!
"No, lola, no!" She shoved the plate to the side, knocking pineapples away from her grandmother's knife.
"Ay!" lola exclaimed. "Anak, why did you do that?"
Isabelle teared up, carefully trying to bring the pineapple pieces back together. "If Piña turned into this, why would her mom eat it?"
Lola paused, thinking about what Isabelle asked. Slowly, realization set in. In all her years of telling the story to her kids and grandkids, Gloria hadn't thought about how horrific it was. She just knew the story encouraged them to start looking for their things more independently.
The thing is, it wasn't a story she came up with. It was her dad's story. His version was longer, more detailed. Could it be true? But—that would mean she had a sister. Questions raced across her mind as she thought of the next time she would see her father. He barely speaks now...would he even remember? Was there any truth in the story?
After all, their family farm was the first and most successful pineapple farm in the Philippines.