Hello! Lover boy!

We don’t know if this kind of greeting is complimentary or reeking with sarcasm but this comes from a good friend whose wit and flashes of brilliance we treasure during our long association. Now retired due to old age and therefore out of circulation, we remember Anos Fonacier of Bohol Beach Club fame as he teased us tongue in cheek on conquests particularly on affairs of the heart. No, this story is not about the old man . Maybe in some other time, we will devote a column or two regarding our exploits and escapades while he was active in the city’s social swirl. As coffee mates, this BGlante and Fonacier are members of the mutual admiration society. But as we said, that’s another story. But first thing first. Much as we try to protect the identities of the characters of this essay, we cannot help if some tongues start wagging because the plot sounds familiar. Whatever, we leave it to our readers’ sound discretion if they happen to read between the lines. One thing sure, the lover boy in this BGlante is one inescapable hint on what it is all about. Yes, Mike, it’s our own love story. But of what good is a story of love if it is not mired in conflict. Just like a good news item, one important element is conflict.

And the conflict thus ensues as the love struck parties are caught in a web of never ending lovers quarrel. And torn between the two lovers is a son who rises as the bridge over troubled waters. The son is a principal player to the amorous dispute making him a third party asset. We cannot imagine if the son is a third party liability. Because, if he is so, then all hell is breaking loose because the parties in love are not about to submit to any mediation proceedings. Both armed with pride of Alpine heights, the parties-in-interest would rather go in separate ways rather than blinking first. All told, if no reconciliation is possible, then there goes a love whose break up is blamed on mutual suspicion of bad faith. But the son refuses to yield to the recalcitrance of both parties. Trying to impress the quarrelling characters that he has a big stake in their relationship, he went out of his way to broker a win-win situation if only for the sake of the common denominator who happens to be the son, the main object of affection.

The son’s obsession is that one day, they will live as family because all these years he was deprived of this right to live under one roof because of forbidden circumstances not of his own making. Now the relationship is on the brink and in danger of going astray and if no cooler heads prevail to the extremis of going bust. Confronted with the crisis situation, the son is pleading to the quarreling adults to cool off and make amends by discarding the foolish pride that tore apart a relationship that once upon a time looked like the stuff a fairy tale romance was made up. The shoe is now on the foot of the son who hungers for the day that his parents will finally unite for a common bond that will tie them together again. Whether the son succeeds in brokering a unified front between a lovers quarrel, we are quoting a famous line in the poem Sorab and Rustum and it says “we know not, and no search will make us know;. Only the event will teach us in its hour."