"Grandma, look! There are blue butterflies in our garden. Those are your favorites, right?" the eighteen-year-old Mallinda said to the old lady beside her.
"Yes, they are," Susana replied, smiling at her granddaughter. She stared at the insect with somber eyes. Sadness she didn't want Mallinda to see. "How about we go to the kitchen and get our snacks there? Let's have a tea time at our favorite spot."
Mallinda hurried to the kitchen to grab some freshly baked cookies. She put them in a simple, gray tray with her grandma's initials. She added the tea set and some bags of strawberry-mango flavored tea.
Just before stepping back to the gazebo at the center of the garden, her heart pounded eerily. She was having butterflies in her stomach. But she couldn't put her fingers on what could be the reason.
"What's wrong Mayi?" A voice from behind almost made her jump.
"Zac!" she called out.
He was her cousin who had just been released from the rehab center for illegal substance abuse. He was a year older than her. His mother died in an accident while his father left him for another woman.
"Grandma and I are having some tea at the gazebo. Do you want to join us?"
Zac gave her a timid smile and shook his head before heading toward the refrigerator to get a glass of cucumber-melon juice.
"Is it true that you and Uncle Fred are going to a resort tomorrow?"
She nodded. "Why?"
"Just asking," he said. He then went back to his room.
The next day, Mallinda and Fred went to the resort to celebrate the latter's promotion.
"This celebration would've been more fun if Mama was with us," Mallinda told Fred, who was busy grilling some fish at the side of the swimming pool.
"I know dear. But you know that she is always with us in our hearts."
"How I wish Grandma was here, too."
"You know she can't, even if she wants. She's very old and fragile now. Her back always hurts. But don't worry, she'll be fine. I have Zac watch over her, so she'll be fine."
A call from Zac cut the father-daughter bonding.
"What is it?" Fred's glabella crisped in confusion.
"Uncle Fred--" Zac stuttered on the other end of the line. His voice cracked; he was about to cry. "Grandma is missing. I only left her for a couple of hours because I went to the market to buy food for lunch. But--"
Zac wasn't able to finish what he was saying. Fred ended the call, and they rushed back home.
"What happened, Zac? How did Mama disappear?"
"Some neighbors say they saw a black van outside the house. We even checked the CCTV to verify."
Fred kept quiet and combed his hair annoyingly. "Who could've abducted her?"
A week passed, but still, there were no positive developments about the search for the old woman. Their only lead was the van parked in front of their house on the day of the old woman's disappearance, but it didn't help at all.
They were losing hope when another problem greeted them.
"What brings you here?" Fred asked his older sister, giving her a scrutinizing look.
"What kind of question is that? Don't I have the right to check on what's going on about Mama's case?"
Fred smirked. "So, you think that I would believe you? Do you really think I believe that you're concerned about Mama? If I'm not mistaken, you're just here, excited, that you have a big chance of amassing the coconut farm. The only piece of land left for Mama!"
Elena stared at her younger brother with furious eyes. Her gaze alone spoke for her selfish thoughts and reasons for dropping by. At first, she denied the allegation, but she eventually gave in.
"Since she disappeared, I was worried about the properties."
"How greedy are you?! Your mother has disappeared but all you could think of is a piece of crappy land?! Don't worry, the land is all yours!!! We don't need it anyway! Mama is what we need!"
"Very well. I have the documents in my house. You can go there tomorrow to sign the agreement."
Fred curled his hand into a fist. His teeth clenched in utter disbelief at how selfish his sister was.
Mallinda hugged her father with a broken heart. She was enraged by her aunt's avaricious nature.
That night, Mallinda and Fred went to the old woman's room to clean it.
They were busy tidying the bed when a loud thud echoed in the room. Their eyes locked on the fallen portrait of the old woman. The fragments of broken glass frame scattered on the floor were like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle sending them an ominous message.
"Dad--"
"I know, Mayi. This is not a good sign."
As they cleaned the shattered pieces, Mallinda saw two blue butterflies resting on the cheeks of her grandmother's photo. It didn't stop there. The two butterflies became five, then ten, until there was a kaleidoscope of them.
"I don't feel good about this," she said.
"Don't feel good about what?" Fred asked, confused.
"Can't you see the butterflies, Dad? There are too many of them."
Fred shook his head.
"Dad! They're everywhere. Look carefully!"
Fred's eyes widened with confusion when he finally saw fluttering insects. "Where did those come from?"
"They are Grandma's favorite butterfly. I think something bad happened to her, Dad."
The next day, they went to Elena's house. But they were even curious to see twice as many blue butterflies in her flower garden. They looked at every corner of the place and were both appalled.
"Antonio," Fred called the gardener upon getting out of the car. "Since when did you take care of butterflies?"
The old man gave him a querying look. "We don't have any butterflies, sir. Madam Elena doesn't want them."
Fred looked at Mallinda. His eyes reflected the realization that only the two of them could see the butterflies.
Only Fred went into the house because his daughter stayed in the garden to watch the butterflies.
She was on a marble bench when the blue butterflies began to form a familiar human figure in front of her.
"Grandma?"
The butterflies flew towards the backyard of the house. She followed them without thinking twice. She was desperate to find her grandmother.
When she reached the backyard, the butterflies flew around a mound of newly-dug plot behind the Dahlias. The soil was still moist; it appeared as if it was dug just before they came.
Moments later, the butterflies disappeared and an old woman's ghost floated above the mound. She was wearing a long white gown. Her face was slightly showing a smile at the sight of Mallinda. But her eyes were sad beyond compare.
"I knew it! Something is really amiss!"
"What's amiss?"
Mallinda almost jumped because she was startled. Her Aunt Elena was standing behind her, giving her a threatening gaze.
"There's something wrong with my Botany project, Aunty. I only realized it now when I saw your garden."
"I see. Why don't you join your father? He's in a hurry to leave."
When they reached home, Mallinda told her father about everything that had happened in the garden.
"That greedy good-for-nothing land-grabber! How nefarious is she to do that to our mother?! She'll pay for it!"
Fred called the police and they went back to Elena's house with a search warrant. They dug up the mound, making Fred and Mallinda collapse on their knees.
The old woman's lifeless body was exhumed, and Elena was arrested.
"I didn't do it!" she cried, trying to let loose from the handcuffs.
"You unalive Mama because of greed?! How dare you?! I will make sure you'll rot in jail!"
"No! I didn't do it!" As Elena struggled to free herself, blue butterflies swiftly flew in her direction. "Help! get these butterflies away from me! I hate them!"
"There are no butterflies, ma'am," said a policeman.
"You deserve that! That's Grandma's tears crying for justice."
Elena didn't seem to hear Mallinda; instead, she kept shooing and crying. "Leave me alone! I've already killed you! No!!!
Fred and Mallinda gave the old lady a proper burial.
Elena was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking the life of her mother.
Indeed, ghosts have their way of getting justice for their sudden demise.
NOTE:
All photos are created/ edited using AI and Canva.
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