Tahimik sa Ilalim - Silence Beneath the Tree

 

Image via Unsplash by Thalia Ruiz


Under the canopy of an old balete tree by the lake, two figures sit side by side, draped in white sheets with hollow eyes. They do not speak. They do not move. But every dusk, they return.

Locals say they were once siblings—Bituen and Bulan—who vanished during a storm decades ago. Some believe they drowned, others whisper of a pact made beneath the tree, a promise to never leave each other, even in death.

Now, they wait.

Not for rescue, but for remembrance.

Children leave offerings—candies, poems, folded leaves with names written in charcoal. The ghosts never touch them, but the wind always shifts, and the tree hums a lullaby no one remembers learning.

One night, a girl named Stella sat with them. She didn’t run. She simply whispered, “Hindi ko kayo nakakalimutan.”
(I haven’t forgotten you.)

The ghosts turned, ever so slightly. And for the first time, the tree dropped two leaves—one for each of them.

Some spirits do not seek release—they seek remembrance. Beneath the tree, silence becomes a kind of love. (Hindi lahat ng espiritu ay naghaVhangad ng paglaya—ang iba'y umaasa lang na maalala. Sa lilim ng puno, ang katahimikan ay nagiging anyo ng pag-ibig.)


© 2025 Amee  Tala at Dilim Writes

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