By: Nick Juaquin

The ball had ended, the girls were sent upstairs to sleep, while the guest from Europe who were feeling bad for they want to party some more went out to finish their drink and have some more fun in that tropical country.

At the girls room Anastasia was telling the girls that witches were abroad for it was a night of divination, night of lovers, and those who cared might peer in a mirror and would there behold the face of whoever it was they were fated to marry. One girl told Anastasia to stop and get out of the room and told her that she is a witch, but another girl said that Anastasia is a maga and was born on Christmas Eve.

One girl is very eager and much interested on Anastasia’s story and want Anastasia to tell her everything, so Anastasia for tell to the girls what to do. That she must go to a mirror close her eyes and say, “mirror mirror show to me him whose woman I will be”, then Anastasia continued that if all goes right then her lover will appear above her left shoulder and if it does not go right she will see the devil.

Agueda walked to the hall down to the sala bravely. The girls have not able to stop her and in their facing the mirror, she whispered the incantation. Agueda felt different and after a while, she has a company.

Then she heared her little child talk that she almost forgets was in her lap. The child asks if what did she saw, if she saw the devil. Then she told her child that yes she saw the devil, it was smiling at her. The devil has a scar in its face like what his father has but the difference is that of the devil is a mark of sin while that of his father is a sign of honor. Agueda continued that the devil has mustache too but unlike to that of his husband that smells of tobacco and is gray, that of the devil is so black and elegant. Agueda told her child that if she does not want to see a devil, she must stop her habbit of always looking at the mirror.

“Charms Like Yours have no need for a candle, faire one” Badoy Monitiya told Agueda then mockingly told her how vain she is that even in the middle of the night she is looking at her face. Agueda got mad and was about to walk away, but Badoy stop her and told her that she cannot go upstairs until she will dance with him. For during the ball Agueda has not dance the polka with him. Forcefully Agueda refuses and then the two got into a talk fight. After a while Agueda piteously cried and Badoy felt sorry for it and ask forgiveness. He told Agueda that he would let her go upstairs if she will forgive him, but instead of forgiving Badoy, she bit his knucklesand fled upstairs.

Filled with pain, Badoy did not know what to do, If he will call his mother to let know what happened or he himself will go upstairs to the girls room and drag Agueda out of the house. Then it came to him how Agueda looks, those curves and that pretty face. Feeling the pain consciousness came that he must take revenge. Later he realize, he want to see, touch and hear her harsh voice. Then it came to his mind that he is madly deeply in love with her, yet he must let her pay.

One May Night Don Badoy Monitiya walks home not even caring to remember what happened years ago. He walks to the hall and as he glanced at the mirror, he suddenly felt something. A familiar sense, then he called the ghostly figure in front the mirror then saw that it was his grandson. Voltaire told his grandpa what the boys in school told him of how he could see his future wife. Don Badoy led his grandson into a seat, and then they talked. He told him about the witch he saw when he was about his age and was so vain that he wants to see himself dieing because of drunkenness. 

Voltaire ask how awful the witch look like, then he told his grandson that the witch he saw was a hell so very beautiful lad and how that witch ate his heart and drank his blood.

Voltaire told his grandpa what his mother told him, about the story of his grandma who as well is eager to see her lover but then saw the devil. At the very moment Don Badoy realized, that was so long ago. Now she was dead, perished, that she were at last at peace and that her body was free from the brutal pranks of the earth from the trap of a May Night, from a snare of summer.

 Don Badoy went up to the window and with tears, reminisce that old love.

REFLECTION :

                We can see that Agueda and Badoy after having a bad married life with each other, used to regret the past that they’ve been together and it is revealed with their hatred for each other and how Agueda used to describe the devil to her granddaughter as if it was Badoy and same way as Badoy describing the witch in the mirror to his grandson as if it was Agueda.

                Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone. For Badoy and Agueda Montiya, they both lived and loved with hate, resentment, regret, but as the story ends, Badoy realized how he wasted his time with Agueda, how he could have loved her, so much more than he did. He realized that he became the devil in Agueda’s life, as she became the witch in his life as well. In the end, they both blamed the superstition of May Day Eve.

We must not put our lives in the conviction of fortune tellers and superstitious beliefs because I believe that half of our fate depends on how we do things and how we value them. Because some beliefs are not been proven and it may lead our lives into something that we are not supposed to be in.

Fate is defined in the dictionary as an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end. The story is set under the assumption that the main characters in the story both believe in superstition, as well as fate. They believed that for they saw each other in the mirror that fated night, which they are bound to be with each other.

They chose to see the worst, but in the end, it can be seen that they were in love. The worst in each other only came out when they chose to see it that way, because we all know that happiness comes out whenever we choose to be happy.