Time for some drabbles! Starting today, I’ll be sharing 2-3 drabbles per week from last year’s drabble anthology, Mythical Beings of Asia. This collection is Book 4 in our Insignia Drabbles series; and a sample of drabbles from Mythical Creatures of Asia (Book 3) are available to read here online, published in 2021.

First up, I hope you enjoy Celestine Trinidad’s Filipino story, ‘Like Langka’!

Like Langka

Celestine Trinidad

Ambrosio never had any visitors in the hospital, for even his own family hated him. But one night, an old woman came to see him. She was tall and thin, her skin dry as leather. She sat beside him all night, jet-black eyes watching his chest rise and fall.

“It won’t be long now,” she said to the nurse on duty. “He now smells like langka.” She smiled, baring sharp yellow teeth.

Hours later, the nurse found Ambrosio cold and lifeless on his bed. The old woman had disappeared.

There was a lingering smell in the air, like ripe jackfruit.

Celestine Trinidad is a licensed physician (particularly, a pathologist) based in the Philippines. In her spare time, she writes speculative fiction and children’s short stories. Some of her other stories have been published in other print and online venues, such as The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Alternative Alamat, and the Southeast Asian Fantasy volume of Insignia.

Website:http://bit.ly/celestinetrinidad

Blog: http://luckychan.dreamwidth.org

Twitter: http://twitter.com/luckychan

Tumblr: http://luckychanmd.tumblr.com