the obsessions of the m/

          It was a lovely afternoon. The rain was gone and the sun was smiling back again. The white clouds flourished the sky. My mother parked in front a house with a fancy bamboo fence (I never thought bamboo would be fancy). Alas! I got out of the car. The moment was beautiful. I stepped, for the first time, on a high class subdivision—-the Forbes Park.

          You might ask me, what’s a filthy and worthless girl like me doing in such an expansive place? Well, I might answer: Well, it’s none of your business. So let’s get on with the story, shall we?

          "So this is the house of Speaker Jdv.." That’s what they termed Speaker Jose de Venecia.

          "Wow!! This place is way awesome! I can’t believe I’m in a real mansion! Whoa!!! A swimming pool, a garden, two buildings, flat screen TV’s on every room.. This is a fantasy!!" I was screaming on my mind. Pretty unbelievable, but what the heck?

          Mother and I went inside the small house at the back of the bigger house. Nice place..  My mother introduced me to the congressmen in there and to other people in politics of which I’ve no idea what position they work in. I was in heaven. They served food and stuff like that. A maid asked me if I wanted anything and as a shy person with manners (ahehehe..), I said no. I wasn’t hungry anyway. But after a few minutes, she gave me fruits: an unpeeled orange (how can I possibly eat that?), sineguelas (is it spelled correctly?), and some small, red, unpeeled fruits, the size of a sineguelas. I ate one sineguelas but didn’t get to finish it all up.

          After tasting the sineguelas, I was focused on the glorious flat screen TV. HBO was on and I was having fun watching it. The story was good even though I didn’t get to start from the beginning. But dar n it! A guy put it on news. And on ABC! "If you’re putting on news mister, put it on GMA!", I scolded him in my mind. I wouldn’t have thought that if he wasn’t a grumpy old man. So there I was, watching some news. Boring ol’ news.

           Beside the board where it was placed was an aircon. The vertical kind. It was blinking. And blinking. And blinking. I enjoyed staring at it for a while. But I stopped knowing that there was a camera that was spying on us. Who knows what the people behind the camera might think?

          "Newsers peepers..", I told myself. Then a man sat down beside me, on my left. Nope, he wasn’t the grumpy elder. He was friendly and he had a sense of humor. He asked me questions like where I went to school and who was I with. The questions led to the stories he told me. He started talking about people he knew who never study but were really, really smart. Then he started talking about college. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, is this my mother’s accomplice? Why is he talking about the importance of studying? I was experiencing guilt. Fyi, I don’t really give study an importance. To prevent the crime of not studying become a soulful sin, I took an opportunity, when he was not talking, and asked him what course he got.  And he said: " I took up Biology. And I end up here in politics. I was studying environmental management. And this is what I’m managing. " He pointed out to the politicians in front of our table who were noisy and all. I laughed at his joke a little, so not to make a big scene.

          In the evening, my mother asked what the guy and I were talking about. I said, "Wala lang." Preventing the explanation from getting long. It was my turn to ask her,
     "Mom, was Jdv there?"
     "Yes, he was there for a while."
     "Was he the guy with a bald head but had hair on his forehead?"
     "Haha. Ssshhhh.."

          When I woke up in the morning, I came to a realization that everyone on that small house was important. So I asked my mother who was I talking to. She told his name was Mex, blah, blah, blah, blah..

          I should’ve not written this. After all, Mr. Mex was ONLY an assistant secretary of Malacañang. Who would care? Hehehe.. ^_^

All hopes are abandoned
All dreams have died
The promises I’ve mentioned
Will no longer survive

For I am in the dark
And forever will be
I still have the mark
Of the devil beside me

Caged and forbidden
Unfortunate and not free
Yet unwritten but spoken
That’s how our love’s gon’ be

This suicide I’ll make
Is dedicated to you
Loving a devil, for God’s sake,
Just to prove my love is true.

I was preparing my cup of coffee that morning. It was only nine and my back was aching again. Yep, I know what you’re thinking. Possibly: “Nine? And you paired that with the word ONLY.” Or, “Nine? Wow dudette, I wake up after lunch!” But you know what, let’s skip the comic relief and get on with my Sunday morning.

 So I sat down on the floor by the electric fan to take some of the heat out of my body because soon, I’ll be drinking a scrumcious treat that I’d be giving myself. Well, since I’m still a minor and my parents would sermon like hell if they saw me with this, ‘twas a pretty good thing that everyone was still in bed. With the Domyoujii’s, no one is awake until after lunch time (except for me ofcourse).

 I was stirring the coffee. I smelled it. The aroma was just lovely and the feeling was great too. Mmmm.. Finally, I could get away from thinking so much and just concentrate on one thought that would make me feel even better than what I was feeling back then. I took a sip. Eww.. My coffee tasted bitter!

             I stood up to get some sugar. I went to the kitchen but I couldn’t seem to find the sugar there. "Salt, vinegar, soysauce, Mang Tomas, no sugar?" I tried to reach over the cupboard and searched there. Still, no luck. I kept on searching until I stooped and then accidentally stepped on my basketball. I thought, "What a messy house we have!" But then I realized that I was the last one who used it.             

            Yep. I went on a 6am shoot out. You know,I was talking to myself again (and I was not alone on the court!). And so, here were my thoughts..

 Dar n it! If I continue missing, I’m going back to the first line of this rainbow! Curses! Curses! Curses! Dar n it!

 I can’t help it! What happened to my style of shooting? I must’ve altered it. Maybe because I was jealous of that Chinese-looking guy that, I figured, had a last name like “Swak”. Maybe I should really be original. Yep, I’ll go back to my froggish jump and to my way of shooting where my butt would stick out. At least with that kind of style, I shoot better (I thank heavens for my ASSet).

 Okay, so I’ll start with the first line of the rainbow again.

 Level one. Janah, just exert a little amount of energy, okay? Because if you don’t you’ll miss it. Remember the rule: If you miss a shot on a certain line, you’ll go back to the line before it. Got it? I got it! Woohoooo! I shot the first one!

 Level two. Just relax. No pressure on you. It’s not that you must shoot it. It’s just that you have to! Release it with grace. Follow my instructions carefully. Waaahh!! I got a swak!!

 Level three. I;m getting there. I must keep my aura flowing. Hah! Ring less! Well whad’ya know? Just 8 more lines to go through!

 Level four. Getting all warmed up now. Three shots straight! No mistakes! I’m startin’ to get a good feeling. Haha! Nice shot! Well done Janah, well done.

 Level five. O-oh.. I hate this part. I ain’t good at this part of the court. It’s completely diagonal! Here it comes.. Oh! I am down with this game!

 Level six. The free throw. This is by far the most dangerous part of the rainbow. Your angles have to be really exact else your gone. Your gon’ back home to five dude. Gon’ back home.. Hehe.. Well if it isn’t a perfect shot! “Mas swak pa sa swak!”

 Level seven. I can’t believe I’m at the other side of the rainbow! I am so gonna get past through this. If not, who knows what would happen? Maybe back to number one?? Here goes nothin’.. Oh men! But wait. Thank God!! That was a close one. The ball nearly fell out of the ring! Good thing it fell in!

 Level eight. What a drag! Level eight is as hard as level seven! I doubt I can make this one. I don’t want my hopes to get too high, now don’t I? O God! So help me God! O well, here goes nothin’! Whoa!! I can’t believe this! It nearly slipped off! So you are helping me God!!

 Level nine. (I guess I was chanting) O yea, o yea, u-huh, o yea, in your face John Cena! I’m in level eight. I’m in level eight. I’m almost level nine. O yea, o yea.. (okay, so I was kinda announcing) And Janah shoots! And she levels up to ten!

 Level ten. No more thoughts. Just shoot! One more to go! Piece of cake!

 Level eleven. The last one. Hah! I got it!! But wait a minute. There’s still the shot from under the ring.

 Level under-the-ring. Just do the boarding Janah. You can do it! Okay. I will. Yep. I did it all right! And then there’s the three-point shot. So I can finally complete my rainbow dream!

 Level three-point-shot-to-complete-my-rainbow-dream. I bet I can’t do this anymore. Even though I’ve completed the rainbow without any mistakes, I believe I’d be in heaven if I make this one. So here it is. No styles. Just plain me. Shoot, please shoot!! What the!!??!?! Is this heaven?? I even got the suicide shot (which was the three-point shot)!

 

              Oh, so there’s the sugar. It was on the dining table all along!

 

              My back ache was soothed and my coffee was sweet for the first time.

              It was an almost perfect day.