The Dog Eaters door to little porch.

The porch was at the top of the stairs that

by Leoncio P. Deriada led out into Artiaga Street.
“Why don’t you do something instead of drinking their
Mariana looked out of the window toward the other side of stinking tuba and eating that filthy meat? Why don’t you
Artiaga Street. A group of men had gathered around a low decent for a change?”
table in front of Sergio’s sari-sari store. It was ten o’clock, Victor turned her off. It seemed he was also ready for a fight.
Tuesday morning. Yet these men did not find it too early to The glint in his eyes had become sinister.
drink, and worse. They wanted her husband to be with them. “And what’s so indecent about eating dog meat?” His voice
Victor was now reaching for his shirt hooked on the wall sounded canine, too, like Sergio’s. “The people of Artiaga
between Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos. Mariana turned to Street have been eating dog meat for as long as I can
him, her eyes wild in repulsion and anger. remember.”
“Those filthy men!” she snarled. “Whose dog did they “No wonder their manners have gone to the dogs!”
slaughter today?” “You married one of them.”
Victor did not answer. He put on his shirt. Presently, he “Yes, to lead a dog’s life!”
crawled on the floor and searched for his slippers under the Victor stepped closer, breathing hard. Marina did not move.
table. Mariana watched him strain his body toward the wall, “What’s eating you?” he demanded.
among the rattan tools. He looked like a dog tracking the “What’s eating me?” she yelled. “Dogs! I’m ready to say aw-
smell hidden carrion. aw, don’t you know?”
“My God, Victor, do you have to join them every time they Victor repaired his face, amused by this type of quarrel.
stew somebody’s pet?” Again, he tried to be funny.
Victor found his slippers. He emerged from under the table, “Come, come, Mariana darling,” he said, smiling
smoothed his pants and unbuttoned his shirt. He was condescendingly.
sweating. He looked at his wife and smiled faintly, the Mariana was not amused. She was all set to proceed with the
expression sarcastic, and in an attempt to be funny, “It’s fight. Now she tried to be acidly ironic.
barbecue today.” “Shall I slaughter Ramir for you? That pet of yours does
“I’m not in the mood for jokes!” Mariana raised her voice. nothing but bark at strangers and dirty the doorstep. Perhaps
“It’s time you stop going with those good-for-nothing you can invite your friends tonight. Let’s celebrate.”
scavengers.” “Leave Ramir alone,” Victor said, seriously.
Her words stung. For now she noted an angry glint in “That dog is enslaving me!”
Victor’s eyes. “They are my friends, Mariana,” he said. Victor turned to the door. It was the final insult, Mariana
“You should have married one of them!” she snapped back. thought. The bastard! How dare he turn his back on her?
Suddenly, she straightened. She heard Sergio’s raspy voice, “Punyeta!” she screeched and flung the bottle at her husband.
calling from his store across the street. It was an ugly voice, Instinctively, Victor turned and parried the object with his
and it pronounced Victor’s name in a triumphant imitation of arm. The bottle fell to the floor but did not break. It rolled
a dog’s bark. noisily under the table where Victor moment had hunted for
“Victor! Victor! Aw! Aw!” the canine growl floated across his rubber slippers.
Artiaga Street. Mariana glared at her husband as he brushed He looked at her, but there was no reaction in his face.
her aside on his way to the window. She felt like clawing his Perhaps he thought it was all a joke. He opened the door and
face, biting his arms, ripping the smelly shirt off his back. stepped out into the street.
“I’m coming,” Victor answered, leaning out of the window. Mariana ran to the door and banged it once, twice, thrice, all
Mariana opened her mouth for harsher invectives but a sharp the while shrieking, “Go! Eat and drink until your tongue
cry from the bedroom arrested her. It was her baby. She hangs like a mad dog’s. Then I’ll call a veterinarian.”
rushed to the table, picked a cold bottle of milk, and entered. Loud after came across the street.
In his rattan crib that looked like a rat’s nest, the baby cried Mariana leaned out of the window and shouted to the men
louder. Mariana shook the crib vehemently. The baby — all gathered in front of Sergio’s store.
mouth and all legs — thrust in awkward arms into the air, “Why don’t you leave my husband alone? You dogs!”
blindly searching for accustomed nipple. The men laughed louder, obscenely. Their voices offended
The baby sucked the rubber nipple easily. But Mariana’s the ears just as the stench from the garbage dump at the
mind was outside the room as she watched her husband lean Artiaga-Mabini junction offended the nostrils. There were
out of the window to answer the invitation of the dog-eaters five other men aside from the chief drinker, Sergio. Downing
of Artiaga Street. a gallon of tuba at ten o’clock in the morning with of
“Aren’t you inviting your wife?” she spoke loud, the hostility in Artiaga’s idle men was his idea of brotherhood. It was good
her voice unchecked by the dirty plywood wall. “Perhaps for his store, he thought, though his wife languish behind the
your friends have reserved the best morsel for me. Which is row of glass jars and open cartons of dried fish — the poor
the most delicious part of a dog, ha, Victor? Its heart? Its woman deep in notebooks of unpaid bills the neighbors had
liver? Its brain? Blood? Bone? Ears? Tongue? Tail? I wish to accumulated these last two years.
God you’d all die of hydrophobia!” Mariana closed the window. The slight darkening of the
“Can you feed the baby and talk at the same time?” Victor room intensified the heat on the roof and in her head. She
said. She did not expect him to answer and now that he had, pulled a stool and sat beside the sewing machine under the
she felt angrier. The heat from the unceilinged roof had huge pictures of Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, under the
become terrible and it had all seeped into her head. She was altar-like alcove on the wall where a transistor radio was
ready for a fight. enshrined like an idol.
The baby had gone back to sleep. Mariana dashed out of the She felt tired. Once again, her eyes surveyed the room with
room, her right hand tight around the empty bottle. She had repulsion. She had stayed in this rented house for two years,
to have a weapon. She came upon her husband opening the tried to paste pictures on the wall, hung up classic curtains
that could not completely ward off the stink from the street.
Instead of cheering up the house, they made it sadder, “There!” Mariana said contemptuously. “With them.” The
emphasizing the lack of the things she had dreamed of old woman looked out of the window.
having when she eloped with Victor two years ago. “He is one of them!”
Victor was quite attractive. When he was teen-ager, he was a “One of what?”
member of the Gregory Body Building Club on Cortes “The dog-eaters of Artiaga Street!” Mariana spat out the
Street. He dropped out of freshmen year at Harvadian and words, her eyes wild in anger.
instead developed his chest and biceps at the club. His was to Aling Elpidia sat down again. “What is so terrible about
be Mr. Philippines, until one day, Gregory cancelled his that?” she asked.
membership. Big Boss Gregory — who was not interested in Mariana looked at the old woman. For the first time she
girls but in club members with the proportions of Mr. noticed that Aling Elpidia had been dying her hair. But the
Philippines — had discovered that Victor was dating a growth of hair this week had betrayed her.
manicurist named Fely. “Do you eat dog meat, Aling Elpidia?” Mariana asked.
Victor found work as a bouncer at Three Diamonds, a “It’s better than goat’s meat: And a dog is definitely cleaner
candlelit bar at the end of Artiaga, near Jacinto Street. All the than a pig. With the price of pork and beef as high as Mount
hostesses there were Fely’s customers. Mariana, who came Apo — one would rather eat dog meat. How’s the baby?”
from a better neighborhood, was a third year BSE student at “Asleep”
Rizal Memorial Colleges. They eloped during the second Aling Elpidia picked up her basket from the floor. “Here’s
semester, the very week Fey drowned in the pool behind your day’s supply of vegetables. I also brought some bangus.
Three Diamonds. Just as Mariana grew heavy with a child, Cook Victor a pot of sinigang and he’ll forget the most
Victor lost his job at the bar. He quarreled with the manager. delicious chunk of aw-aw meat. Go, get a basket.”
An uncle working in a construction company found him a Mariana went to the kitchen to get a basket as Aling Elpidia
new job. But he showed up only when the man did not report busied herself sorting out the vegetables.
for work “I hope you haven’t forgotten the green mangoes and — and
These last few days, not one of the carpenters got sick. So that thing you promised me,” Mariana said, laying her basket
Victor had to stay home. on the floor.
Mariana felt a stirring in her womb. She felt her belly with “I brought all of them,” assured the old woman. She began
both hands. Her tight faded dress could not quite conceal this transferring the vegetables and fish into Mariana’s basket.
most unwanted pregnancy. The baby in the crib in the other Mariana helped her.
room was only eight months, and here she was — carrying “I haven’t told Victor anything,” Mariana said in a low,
another child. She closed her eyes and pressed her belly hard. confidential tone.
She felt the uncomfortable swell, and in a moment, she had “He does not have to know,” Aling Elpidia said.
ridiculous thought. What if she bore a pair or a trio of The old woman produced from the bottom of the basket a tall
puppies? She imagined herself as a dog, a spent bitch with bottle filled with a dark liquid and some leaves and tiny,
hind legs spread out obscenely as her litter of three, or four, gnarled roots. She held the bottle against the light. Mariana
or five, fought for her tits while the mongrel who was regarded it with interest and horror. “I’m
responsible for all this misery flirted with the other dogs of afraid, Aling Elpidia,” she whispered.
the neighborhood. “Nonsense. Go, take these vegetables to the kitchen.”
A dog barked. Mariana was startled. It was Ramir. His chain Mariana sped to the kitchen. Aling Elpidia moved to the
clanked and she could picture the dog going up the stairs, his table, pushed the dish rack that held some five or six tin
lethal fangs bared in terrible growl. plates, and set the bottle beside a plastic tumbler that
“Ay, ay, Mariana!” a familiar, nervous voice rose from the contained spoon and forks. She pulled a stool from beneath
din. “Your dog! He’ll bite me. Shoo! Shoo!” the table and sat down. Soon Mariana was beside her.
It was Aling Elpidia, the fish and vegetable vendor. “Is it effective?” Mariana asked nervously.
“Stay away from the beast, Aling Elpidia!” Mariana shouted. “Very effective. Come on let me touch you.”
She opened the door. Aling Elpidia was in the little yard, her Mariana stood directly in front of the old woman, her belly
hands nervously holding her basket close to her like a shield. her belly almost touching the vendor’s face. Aling Elpidia
Ramir was at the bottom of the stairs, straining at his chain, felt Mariana’s belly with both hands.
barking at the old woman. “Three months did you say, Mariana?”
Mariana pulled the chain. The dog resisted. But soon he “Three months and two weeks.”
relaxed and stopped barking. He ran upstairs, encircled “Are you sure you don’t want this child?” Aling Elpidia
Mariana once, and then sniffed her hands. asked one hand flat on Mariana’s belly. “It feels so healthy.”
“Come on up, Aling Elpidia. Don’t be afraid. I’m holding “I don’t want another child,” Mariana said. And to stress the
Ramir’s leash.” finality of her decision, she grabbed the bottle and stepped
The old woman rushed upstairs, still shielding herself with away from the old woman. The bottle looked like atrophy in
her basket of fish and vegetables. her hand.
“Naku, Mariana. Why do you keep that crazy dog at the “Well, it’s your decision,” Aling Elpidia said airily. “The
door? He’ll bite a kilo off every visitor. The last time I was bottle is yours.”
here I almost had a heart attack.” “Is it bitter?”
“That’s Victor’s idea of a house guard. Come, sit down.” “Yes.”
Aling Elpidia dragged a stool to the window. “Why, I’m still Mariana squirmed. “How shall I take this?”
trembling!” she said. “Why must you close the window, “A spoonful before you sleep in the evening and another
Mariana?” spoonful after breakfast.”
Mariana opened the window. “Those horrible men across the “May I take it with a glass of milk or a bottle of coke?”
street, I can’t stand their noise.” “No. You must take it pure.”
“Where’s Victor?” “It’s not dangerous, is it, Aling Elpidia?”
“Don’t you worry. It is bitter but it is harmless. It will appear “You are not reasonable. You never tried to please me. You
as an accident. Like falling down the stairs. Moreover, there would rather be with your stinking friends and drink their
will be less pain and blood.” dirty wine and eat their dirty meat. Oh, how I hate it, Victor!”
“Please come everyday. Things might go wrong.” “What do you want me to do — stay here and boil the baby’s
Aling Elpidia nodded and stood up. “I think I must go now,” milk?”
she said. Then she lowered her voice and asked, “Do you “I wish you would!”
have the money?” “That’s your job. You’re a woman.”
“Yes, yes,” Mariana said. She went to the sewing machine “Oh, how are you admire yourself for being a man,” Mariana
and opened a drawer. She handed Aling Epidia some sneered in utter sarcasm. “You miserable — ”
crumpled bills. “Don’t yell. You wake up the baby.”
The vendor counted the bills expertly, and then dropped the “To hell with your baby!”
little bundle into her breast. She picked up her basket and “You are mad, Mariana.”
walked to the door. Suddenly she stopped. “Your dog, “And so I’m mad. I’m mad because I don’t eat dog meat. I’m
Mariana.” Her voice became nervous again. mad because I want my husband to make a man of himself,
Mariana held Ramir’s leash as the old woman hurried down I’m mad because — “
the stairs. “You may start taking it tonight.” It was her last “Stop it!”
piece of medical advice. Loud laughter rose from the store “Punyeta!”
across the street. Mariana stiffened. Her anger returned. Then “Relax, Mariana. You are excited. That’s not good for you. I
her baby cried. want my second baby healthy.”
She hurried to the bedroom. The tall bottle looked grotesque “There will be no second baby.”
on the table: tiny, gnarled roots seemed to twist like worms “What do you mean?”
or miniature umbilical cords. With a shudder, she glanced at “You met Aling Elpidia on your way.”
the bottle. The sharp cry became louder. Mariana rushed “And what did that witch do? Curse my baby? Is a vampire?”
inside and discovered that the baby had wetted its clothes. “She came to help me.”
She heard somebody coming up the stairs. It must be Victor. Mariana went to the table and snatched the bottle. She held
Ramir did not bark. high in Victor’s face. “See this, Victor?” she taunted him.
“Mariana!” Victor called out. “Mariana!” Victor was not interested. “You don’t want me to drink tuba,
“Quiet!” she shouted back. “The baby’s going back to sleep.” and here you are with a bottle of sioktong.”
The house had become hotter. Mariana went out of the “How dull you are!” her lips twisted in derision. “See those
bedroom, ready to resume the unfinished quarrel. Victor was leaves? See those roots? They are very potent, Victor.”
now in the room, sweating and red-eyed. He had taken off his “I don’t understand.”
shirt and his muscular body glistened wit animal “One spoonful in the morning and one spoonful in the
attractiveness. But now Mariana was in a different type of evening. It’s bitter, Victor, but I will bear it.”
heat. Like a retarded, Victor stared at his wife. Then the truth
“I met that old witch Elpidia,” Victor said, “What did she dawned upon him and exclaimed in horror, “What? What?
bring you today?” My baby!”
“The same things. Vegetables. Some fish.” Mariana faced her husband squarely. “Yes! And I’m not
“Fish! Again?” afraid!” she jeered.
“You are drunk!” “You won’t do it.”
“I’m not drunk. Come Mariana dear. Let me hold you.” “I’m not afraid.”
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “You stink!” “Give me that bottle.”
Victor moved back, offended. “I don’t stink and I’m not “No!”
drunk.” “What kind of woman are you?”
Mariana stepped closer to her husband. He smelled of cheap “And what kind of man are you?”
pomade, onions, and vinegar. “It’s my baby!”
“Do you have to be like this all the time? Quarreling every “It’s mine. I have the right to dispose of it, I don’t want
day? Why don’t you get a steady job like any decent another child.”
husband? You would be out the whole day, and perhaps, I “Why, Mariana, why?”
would miss you.” “Because you cannot afford it! What would you feed your
“You don’t have to complain,” Victor said roughly. “True, another child, ha, Victor? Tuba milk? Dog meat for rice?”
my work is not permanent but I think we have enough. We “We shall manage, Mariana. Everything will be all right.”
are not starving, are we?” “Sure, sure, everything will be all right — for you. I don’t
“You call this enough?” her hands gesticulated madly. “You believe in that anymore.”
call this rat’s nest, this hell of a neighborhood — enough? “Give me that bottle!”
You call these tin plates, this plastic curtains — enough? “No!”
This is not the type of life I expect. I should have continued They grappled for a moment. Mariana fought like an
school. You fooled me!” untamed animal. At last Victor took hold the bottle. He
“I thought you understood. I — ” pushed his wife against the wall and ran to the window, his
“No, no I didn’t understand. And still I don’t understand why right hand holding the bottle above his head.
you — you — ” And like a man possessed, he hurled the bottle out f the
“Let’s not quarrel,” Victor said abruptly. I don’t want to window. The crash of the glass against the gravel on the road
quarrel with you.” rendered Mariana speechless. But she recovered. She dashed
“But I want to quarrel with you!” Mariana shouted. to the window and gave out almost inhuman scream at what
“Be reasonable.” she saw. The bottle was broken into countless splinters and
the dark liquid stained the dry gravel street. Bits of leaves
and roots stuck to the dust. Presently, a dog came along and
sniffed the wet ground suspiciously, then left with his tail Then Ramir barked.
between his legs. “Shut up, you miserable dog!”
Mariana screamed again in horror and frustration. In the Ramir continued barking.
glare of the late morning sun she had a momentary image of Mariana paused. Ramir, she taught. Victor’s dog. A cruel
the men — now faceless and voiceless — in front of the store thought crossed her mind and stayed there. Now she knew
across the street. This time they did not laugh, but they exactly what to do. She reached for the big kitchen knife of a
watched her from certain blankness. She turned to her shelf above the sink. Kicking the scattered tin plates on the
husband and flung herself at him, raising her arms, her floor, she crossed the main room to the porch.
fingers poised like claws. She scratched his face and pounded Downstairs, Ramir was barking at some object in the street.
his chest with her fists. Noticing Mariana’s presence, he stopped barking. Mariana
“Damn you! Damn you!” she shrieked in fury. stared at the dog. The dog stared back, and Mariana noticed
Victor caught her arms and shook her. “Stop it, Mariana!” he the change in the animal’s eyes. They became fiery,
mumbled under his breath. dangerous. My God, Mariana thought. This creature knew!
“Let me go! You are hurting me!” Ramir’s ears stood. The hair on the back of its neck stood,
“Behave you woman!” Victor shook her harder. too. Then he bared his fangs viscously and growled.
Mariana spat on his face. Then she bit on the right arm. She Mariana dropped the knife. She did not know how to use it at
spat again, for she had a quick taste of salt and dirt. this moment. She was beginning to be afraid.
Victor released her. She moved back, her uncontrollable rage Slowly, she climbed up the stairs. He moved softly but
shaking her. “You threw it away! You destroy it! I paid forty menacingly. Like a hunter sizing up his quarry. His
pesos for it and it’s not your money!” yellowing fangs dropped with saliva.
“Forty pesos,” Victor murmured. “That is a lot of milk.” Meanwhile, Mariana was untying the chain on the top of the
Mariana caught her breath. She allowed dryly and said, stairs.
“What do you want me to do now — cut children’s dresses?” And the dog rushed into the roaring attack. Quicker than she
“You are unnatural. You don’t act like a mother, you want to thought she was, Mariana slipped the end of the chain under
kill your own child.” the makeshift railing of the stairway and pulled the leash
“It’s my own child.” with all her might. As she had expected, the dog hurtled into
“It’s murder!” the space between the broken banisters and fell. The weight
“Nobody will know.” of the animal pulled her to her knees, but she was prepared
“I will know. You will know. And God — and God — will for that, too. She braced herself against the rails of the porch,
know!” and now, the dog was dangling below her. A crowd had now
“Ahhh!” Mariana sneered contemptuously. “Now who’s gathered in front of the house to witness the unexpected
talking? When was the last time you went to church, ha execution. But Mariana neither saw their faces nor heard
Victor? That was the time the Legion of Mary brought us to their voices.
Fatima Church to be married and you fought with the priest Ramir gave a final yelp and stopped kicking the air.
in the confessional. And now here you are mentioning God’s Mariana laughed deliriously. She watched the hanging
name to me.” animal and addressed it in triumph: “I’ll slit your throat and
“Please, please, Mariana,” Victor was begging now. “That’s drink your blood and cut you to pieces and stew you and eat
our child!” you! Damn you, Victor. Damn this child. Damn everything.
“I told you I didn’t want another child. You broke that bottle I’ll cook you, Ramir. I’ll cook you and eat you and eat you
but I’ll look for other means. I’ll starve myself. I’ll jump out and eat you!”
of the window. I’ll fall down the stairs.” She released the chain and the canine carcass dropped with a
“Mariana!” thud on the ground below.
“You cannot afford to buy pills or hire a doctor.” Mariana sat on the topmost step of the stairs; she put her
“I want a child.” hands between her legs and stared blankly at the rusty
“You men can talk because you don’t have to bear the rooftops in front of her. And for the first in all her life on the
children. You coward!” Artiaga Street, Mariana cried.
Victor raised his hand to strike her. Mariana offered her face,
daring him to complete his own humiliation. Victor dropped
his hand. He was lost, totally unmanned.
A bit of his male vanity stirred inside him. He raised his hand
again, but Mariana was quick with the nearest weapon. She
seized a stool with both hands, and with the strength all her
arms could muster, throws the stool at him. Victor caught the
object with his strong shoulder. The stool dropped to the
floor as Mariana made ready with another weapon, a vase of
plastic flowers.
“Go away from me! Get out! Get out!”
Victor went out of the room. Mariana was left panting,
giving vent to her anger by pulling down the plastic curtains
and the printed cover of the sewing machine. She stooped to
the table and with a furious sweep of her hand, cleared it of
dish rack, tin plates, spoons, and forks. Then she went to the
kitchen and tossed the basket of vegetables and fish out of
the kitchen window. A trio of dogs rushed in from nowhere
and fought over the fish strewn in the muddy space under the
sink.