Even After

In the kingdom of the seminar on sexual harassment, the citizens were bored. The king, the speaker, spoke so slowly (those in power never rush) and paused after almost every word that the topic lost its importance. Many knew, only coffee could save the world from sleeping. But no man was brave enough to risk the journey.

With cat-like grace, our princess (Selma) brought herself to the coffee stand. Male heads turned. Almost without the help of her eyes, nimble hands composed her potion: brewed coffee, 1 teaspoon of sugar done in a matter of seconds with no spill and no sound(of the spoon hitting the cup) . Well toned legs brought her back to her chair, silently but without embarrassment for being the first one to stand. Others followed briefly.

"aany(pause) questionssz?" asked the speaker.

Selma's friend, sidekick, whispered a question "Do you have a valentine tonight?". The princess replied with a confident smile. But  boredom, those words and the speaker, made the stagnant waters of time a breeding ground of mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes of the past. There was something about the speaker's voice that reminded Selma of a prince(number 3), a bard, who had her with  his own "I would have given you all of my heart...baby I'll try to love again..." who tried to hide the other woman in his closet while, on bended knees, begged her not to leave him. Selma left him. They were together for 2 years.

She also left sweetest prince number 4, who gestured much like the Speaker. So sweet and soft-hearted he couldn’t carry the burden of her mother's death...financially. Selma paid and organized both wake and funeral all by herself. She barely slept and the whole damn thing cost her 3 paychecks. On this guy's thank you FB post: "I thank all my family and friends who helped us during this dire time, all the flowers..." on and on, without the smallest thank you for Selma. Nobody from the guy's family thanked her. She left them.

All the valentinos, all the memories and the mosquito bites, how they itch! But she has learned not to scratch them and to prevent further bites- swatting mosquitoes just before they're about to suck. Still, a mosquito of the future would bite her. She would not foresee this, but it will happen.

It will happen.

Later on, at a time when her daughter had grown. Selma, with tears dropping like rain,  would write another prince, number 6, the husband: "Mahirap  tumanda na nagiisa."(It's hard to grow old alone). They will leave each other as they did before.

Mother Nature and Father Time never got married, nor stayed together forever. We are all bastards...even Him. But it's just a story, the events aren't real. Or are they?

Selma's coffee flushes the stagnant time. Back to the present, sitting on a seminar. She takes out her DSLR camera, turns it on to the picture of her daughter, Fia (fire). The image lights another smile on her face.

Valentine's Day, all the lonely vampires will prowl the night to escape the silence, solitude and sobriety of being single- single and escape in the many ways men imagined them. And while they do all that searching and leaving in the shortest possible time,  mother would simply go home to her daughter.

Just your daily fairy tale. Once upon a time, a lady met a gentleman, the two fell in love and had a daughter. As it happens the couple fell out of love. The mother and daughter went together and they lived happily even after.