It was a hot summer morning. Doña Lupeng was sleeping when she hears a strange sound.

The
sound of screaming would not stop so she decided to go outside. She saw her 3 sons in the
dining room.
“How long have you slept, mama?”
“we thought you were never getting up”
“Do we leave at once, huh? Are we going now?”
Her sons came crowding around her talking all at once.
“HUshhhh! I implore you! Now look; your father has a headache and so have I. So be quiet this
instant and or no one goes to grandfather!”

It was only 7 o’clock. Doña Lupeng then went to find the cause of the ruckus and brought her to
the couple servants.
There she found Entoy, the driver, apparently deaf to the screams.
“And what ails your wife,eh? Have you been beating her again?” Lupeng asks to Entoy.
“Oh no, Señora. I have not touched her.” Entoy answered.
“Then why is she screaming?! Is she ill?!”
“I don’t think so. You can go and see for yourself Señora, she’s up there”

When Doña Lupeng entered the room, the big half naked woman sprawled in bed, shocked her.
“What is this Amada? Why are you still in bed at this hour? And at such a posture! Get up at
once! You should be ashamed!”
But the woman in the bed merely stared. She was rolling over on her back and spreading out
her big soft arms and legs.
“Tell me Entoy, Entoy. Has she been to the Tadtarin?”
“Yes Señora, last night”
“ But I forbade her to go!And I forbade you to let her go!”
“But I could do nothing. It is the day of Saint John; the spirit is in her. She is the Tadtarin. She
must do what she pleases.
Otherwise the grain will not grow, the trees would bear no fruit, the river would give no fish. At
such time, she is not my wife. She is the wife of the moon.”

“How can they still believe in such things?” demanded Doña Lupeng as they drove in the open
carriage. A passing male which Lupeng called rude creatures flaunting their manhood in the sun
only increased Doña Lupeng’s annoyance.

Later, Guido comes. He is the cousin of Paeng (Lupeng’s husband). He comes back to the
Philippines after studying in Europe. Guido saw Lupeng at the garden and they greeted each
other.
“ I remember that you are a woman, a beautiful woman. And why not? Did you turn into some
dreadful monster when you married? Did you stop being a woman? Did you stop being
beautiful? Then why should my eyes not tell you what you are just because you are married?”
Guido said to Lupeng.
Guido then invited Lupeng to join St. John’s feast.
“Tadtarin are awesome woman like you” Guido makes suggestive comments to Lupeng. He also
kneeled down and solemnly kissed the tips of Donya Lupeng’s shoes.
Due to this, Doña Lupeng grew curious of the Tadtarin ritual.

Later at night, Doña Lupeng has decided to join the Tadtarin Festival. Her husband, Don Paeng
tried to stop her but she still had her way. Once they arrived on the place she joined the
dancing women. Don Paeng tried to retrieve her from the crowd but the women ganged up on
him. Paeng felt that all those women had personally insulted him.

“Come, let us go now” said Don Paeng to his wife. Doña Lupeng allowed herself to be led away
but eventually she pulled free from his husband grasp and ran into the crowd of dancing
women.
Don Paeng threatened to give Doña Lupeng a beating once they got home but the Doña is not
afraid of it.

“How I behaved tonight is what I am. If you call that lewd, then I was always a lewd woman and
whipping will not change me – though you whipped me till I died.”

“It is because I love you, I respect you.” Paeng answered.

“And because if you ceased to respect me you would cease to respect yourself?”
Doña continued to express herself.

Paeng tried and tried to defend himself.

But Doña Lupeng wants her husband to adore her and not just respected.

“Either you must say it- or you must whip me. “ Doña taunted. She was waiting for him to
speak, forcing him to speak.

“ No, I cannot whip you” Paeng confessed miserably.

Doña Lupeng shooked her head furiously.

“Until you have said it to me, there can be no peace between us.”

Paeng, eshausted at last; he sank heavily to his knees, breathing hard and streaming with
sweat.
“I adore you Lupe” the Don said tonelessly.
“I adore you, that I worship you. That the air you breathe and and the ground you tread is holy
to me. That I am your dog, your slave….”

But to Lupeng it is not still enough. She was not satisfied. She clenched her fists and cried:
“Then come, crawl on the floor, and kiss my feet!”
Without hesitation, Paeng sprawled down flat and working his arm and legs, gaspingly clawed
his way across the floor, like a great agonized lizard, he lay exhausted at her feet, his face flat
on the floor.
He kissed the step, the sole, the frail ankle- while she bits her lips, her head flung back ang her
loose hair streaming out the window. The moon glowed like a sun and the dry air flamed into
lightning ang the pure heat burned with the immense intense fever of noon.
Doña Lupeng succeeded into commanding her husband to kiss her feet to show adoration.