My Krung Krung Bae

Chapter 2: Slap at First Sight

MY KRUNG KRUNG BAE – Chapter 2

Slap at First Sight

JC Pacheco

“How’s work?” I heard my mother, Melai Pacheco, asked soon as I stepped into the entryway of our two-story four-bedroom house. I could see her from the corner of my eye sitting at the dining table reading a few pages she wrote for her new book.

“Good,” I told her as I headed to the dining table and dropped my backpack. I walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water as she made these tiny grunts over what she was reading.

My mother is a perfectionist when it comes to her works as a writer. She’s a novelist. She writes mostly romance books. She would go over her drafts a thousand times before she writes the final manuscript and oftentimes, her editor would come barging into our house demanding her submission.

“I thought I already wrote ‘adore’ on this line?” She grumbled and I heard her slap her papers on the table. “Do I need new glasses?”

I turned around as I finished half of my bottle to see her inspect her glasses. “What are you writing this time that made you complain about a word ‘adore’, mother?”

She sighed as she removed from her face her round shaped glasses she just recently purchased. One of my cats played with her last pair and I accidentally stepped on it. Because of it, I had to spend dinner with my mother and sister every other day. A payment of some sort.

My mother is a beautiful forty six year old woman who had been the best mother in the world to me. With her beauty, she insisted glasses would hide her charms from potential suitors. At least that’s what Dara, my sister, made her believe. My mother has been a widow for over six years now. Her books, my sister, her successful writing career, and her gossip hours with her best friend filled all her time. She has has no time to date.

She looked up to me and pursed her lips to the side. “It’s about a cold-hearted, single man working at a printing company. He keeps rejecting these suitors of his—men and women. Probably even college lads and girls. He has two cats, a single mom, and an adorable sister who loves him so much. And all they wanted is for this cold-hearted man to find a good partner in life. Such sad, sad story.” She shook her head at me slowly.

I narrowed my eyes at her after she just narrated the summary of my life. It was not her book she was talking about. It was me.

“Where does the ‘adore’ fall in the story, mother?” I asked.

She smiled at me and stood up to walk up to me. “Adore. Love. Amore. When do I meet future Mrs. JC Pacheco, uh? Or Mr. JC Pacheco?” she asked me with a hug I didn’t know how she fit around me when I’m a well built, six feet tall man and she’s eight inches shorter than me. Petite, might I add.

“I have a brother-in-law?!”

I groaned internally seeing my excited sister enter the house. She skipped her way to us and added more arms around my body. This is family pressure, a persistent call for me to settle down. That’s right. These two had been hinting me to find someone to shower the love no one had ever seen me display or show anyone.

Like my mother said, I’m a cold-hearted rejector.

“So who is he?” Dara asked as she let me go and my mother did as well.

I chose to ignore her and gathered my backpack from the table to sit back in the living room. Try to relax, maybe, before I share dinner full of chatters between these two women in my life. They’re a handful already. Why would I add another?

***

“Guess what?” Dara opened up a new topic just as I thought it was safe for me to exit. Dinner was scrumptious as my mother made my favorite kare-kare and dinuguan, two Filipino foods that I just couldn’t get enough of. I settled back in my seat with an empty plate staring back at me at the table.

“What is it?” our mother asked as she took the last spoonful of her rice left on her plate.

“Ryan confessed to me! Eeep!!!”

Oh boy…

The room suddenly was filled with excited shrieks and god knows what as my sister continued to disclose what happened. This Ryan kid, I know him. He’s the timid boy who would lurk around our house on Friday evenings with a bag of chocolates for my sister. I heard from my mother that he’s never actually told Dara he likes her. Finally he had the courage.

Dear lord…

Bless his soul because I myself can testify how crazy the women in my family are. And he fell for one of them? Good luck with that.

I slowly eased my way off my seat and left my plate and empty glass on the sink.

“Your sister is only sixteen and she will most likely bag a boyfriend before you do,” I heard my mother say as I stepped into the living room to get my backpack so I could go home.

I have been living by myself for the past two years in small one-bedroom apartment near my workplace. I saved up since I started working right after graduation. I love my mother and my sister but I think I only exist for them to coerce me into marrying someone or at least find a lover already. I’m only twenty seven and I just don’t have time for lovers at the moment.

“So?” My mother added as I took a few more steps. I could already see the grin in my sister’s face and hear a soundless cackle from my mother.

“Soon mother,” I told her.

“Soon,” she repeated in almost a mocking way. “Okay. Mama loves ya!”

“I love you guys, too!”

I headed out after getting my backpack. I walked down the steps from my mother’s front porch and stood by my car beside the road before I pulled up my phone to check on my two cats at my house.

I smiled to myself seeing one black and one white figure eating their food from their feeder. They knew the routine. At around this time and I’m not at home, dinner time is dinner time. Even when I’m not at home, I knew they were fed.

As I drove to my house, I thought about what my mother said. Perhaps, I am really cold-hearted because I keep rejecting my suitors but I won’t accept anyone who doesn’t have my interest. It would just end sooner or later. Then again, how would I know? I have never been in love.