(This is the concluding installment of the seven-part series on “A Day in the Life of Peter Solis Nery”. Previously, the great PSN woke up with a big woody for life, explained why he continues to write for the reliable Panay News, meditated on cooking in the nude, stocked on six flavors of ice cream, chatted with fans on Facebook, and cooked a killer tahong adobo.)
BLAST FROM THE PAST
You feel a musical film tonight.
You set up your TV dinner table and tray.
Mussel adobo extraordinaire.
A little jasmine rice, why not?
You mix your own drink.
*
Another signature mix drink special only you can concoct.
One part Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, one part Disaronno amaretto, one part Langers Pomegranate-Blueberry Plus juice, and a handful of ice cubes.
You take a couple of swigs.
Tasty.
You think you can have two or three more of this before the night is over.
*
Cocktail mixing is an art, not a science.
That’s your opinion.
And you drink what others may not dare to imbibe.
So nothing is really wasted even if your experiment fails.
You are open to happy mistakes.
To glorious accidents.
To things that may not be prepared again in the same way.
*
Food ready.
Drink ready.
And if anything fails tonight, you got ice cream and cookies.
You cannot complain with ice cream and cookies.
You are a most ungrateful person if you dare complain when you have ice cream and cookies.
Just think of all the children in the world wanting a scoop, maybe even a spoonful, of your ice cream.
Dying to have a piece, or a crumbled half, of your Oreo cookie.
*
The film.
What movie to watch tonight?
You want it to be a musical.
The 2004 Phantom of the Opera?
Or, the 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast?
Maybe the 2017 live-action musical Beauty and the Beast?
They have the same plot: a beautiful girl, a monster who wants her, and a handsome third.
*
You decided Phantom is too dark for tonight.
You have alcohol within reach.
You might end up drinking more than you care for.
You chose Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991).
The first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture in Oscar history.
*
You wrote something about this sometime in 1995.
Maybe 1998.
You said (and you are glad you looked at your files of old writings when you wrote about “The Missing Peter Solis Nery” for Panay News, July 11, 2018):
“Beauty and the Beast” —
*
“Somewhere in the middle of Walt Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (I think it was after ‘Something There’, or maybe just before ‘The Beast Lets Belle Go’, I wept bitterly because I was no longer watching the film. I was thinking of you, and the made-for-movies love that we had.
*
I never really believed life could be as beautiful as fairy tales. But you glanced at me with a look that saw through my disguise. You understood my soft spot; and with gentleness and love, you put up with my savagery to redeem my soul from my little twisted fate. And so I learned to love, and die, in my beastly heart.
*
Although you never came back as in the movie, I won’t forget the Beast’s dying lines: “You came back… Maybe, it is better this way… At least, I get to see you one… last… time.”
*
Three small paragraphs written in your youth.
Glorious!
Wonderful.
You are glad you have written these lines.
You are glad there are print out copies scattered around your files.
It’s so you.
It’s still you.
*
You are still this romantic guy from twenty, maybe 23, years ago.
Nothing much has changed.
Your heart is still your heart.
A true romantic.
You think you haven’t really changed because you don’t need much changing.
You are as beautiful as you were in your youth.
*
You decide to end writing this piece.
You agree that you have been generous today.
Generous to others, to your readers, to yourself.
You tried to share your day without much editing.
Thankfully, it was a beautiful day.
But you always have beautiful days like this.
*
Now, you just want to concentrate on your movie.
Drinking moderately.
Enjoy the sensurround function of your home theatre.
You deserve this.
You have a good heart.
You are a good person.
*
The world loves you.
And even if they don’t, you know that God loves you.
And if you even doubt that tonight, you can get a box of ice cream.
And eat all 1.5 quarts of it.
You just have to love yourself that way.
For tonight.
*
You will live another day.
To make them all fall in love with you again.
Or not.
Because, seriously, who needs love when you have cookies and ice cream?
A single guy can survive on ice cream and cookies alone!
Those who haven’t seen it happen, obviously, haven’t lived enough.
And who’s fault is that? (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
