The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.
- Herman Hupfeld

Scene 4. The Sodium, 8:20 pm. Belle and Cha are settled at their reserved table, currently buried in their own little indulgences. Cha is on her cellphone, making us surmise that her real nickname is Chat. Belle on the other hand is busy with poetry, what else. She looks with sparkling eyes at her composition on the table, in mixed media, alphabet-soup letters over Victorian linen - a breakthrough in Art, placated by the idea that right there, what she's looking at, is a literal food for thought:

Broth your lovely cream is sweet
as sweet as the cream of my love s* breath

(*an alphabet soup does not
have an apostrophe)

Thereafter in an act so big that even stops Chat from chatting, Belle, in a supremely feminine dexterity with her forceps, puts the soup-letters back to the soup in the bowl, carefully now, one by delicate one, each letter accompanied by a chant that needs to be accounted for, audited by no less than a purely romantic heart: he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not...and by the last letter, let's stop what we are doing please and provide audience to this lovely woman for whom we could write a biography of romantic love, how sweet she portrays, with the last letter dangling in her forceps, proudly accompanied by the corresponding chant: 'he loves me!!!'

The glee is timelee, (how Belle infects me), because at this very moment, who else appears by the door to explain the tremendous aura generated by her presence, no less than the goddess of counsel, in mortal form just like the two who came in first: Cha (from being the Ghost, spiritual princess) and Belle (from being the Poetry Muse), so let us welcome Jet and appreciate her in her beautiful blue dress. Blue, but she seems that. Blue.

Jet: Hi guys, Hi Chaaaaaaaa!!! You are so cuuuuute, I wanna hug you no end, I will not let you go and hug you like this until our picture is taken, and yooouu Belle, you still look the same beeeeauuuutiful Belllllllleeeee!!!
Belle: Hi Jet, thanks for coming cuz we were worried you're not gonna come.
Cha: Josme, Mareng Belle, I did not know you can talk in a non-verse form.
Belle: Of course I can, from time to time, y' know, cuz especially now that I realize he lovvveeesss me soooo palaaaaaaa, OMG, I can feel all emotions coming through the valley of my chest, the plateau of my head, the gorge of my tummy, the cave of my lungs!
Jet: Am so happy to see you again Belle, and you Cha, for the first time, tas mamya Starbucks tayo, tas inom-inom, tas pasyal-pasyal, tats ako sa kitakits natin galeng talaga, ako ay tats, ako ay tats na tats...
Belle: Teka nga Jet, what's that on the sole of your shoe?
Jet: Ayyy, ako ay nakaapak ng etats...!!!

8:50 pm.
Jet: Okay guys, let's eat, I'm hungry I can't wait for the boys to come. Where's our waiter?
Cha: Hoy, mama, pssssttt!
(A uniformed guy comes)
Jet: Are you a waiter here?
uniformed guy: Yes, I am the captain waiter, ma'am.
Belle:
O captain waiter my captain waiter
Don't fear, my tip for you is done...
My pork, is it here? I'm Belle, you hear?

The captain waiter remains silent.

Belle:
My captain waiter does not answer
His lips are pale and still...

9:00 pm.
Cha: But wait, Jet, why do you seem to be substituting for Belle? She was the one looking so forlorn before but now suddenly seems so alive, and here comes you, looking ssooooo...lonely?
Jet: Don't worry about me, I'm just having a case of krispykreme relapse, otherwise known in SG as KR.
Cha:Huh...KR? What the food?

(At this juncture let us do a little public service. Since this blog deals with life the same degree as literature, let us make a little survey. Please choose the best reason why you think Jet seems down - OMG that sounds like a plane crash - from among the following:
a. She left her heart, first sa pansitan, then in San Francisco;
b. She feels guilty for not having picked up the cellphone when it rang while she's having fun in Sacramento, in the process not being able to confirm if cbs is indeed an internet creation of Jobert;
c. She feels unfulfilled, being rejected by Freude to join the EB;
d. She's mad since last week because fafajay finished all of the specially-ordered nasi goreng and otak-otak;
e. She's depressed because life is beginning now, at age uhmmm, despite being told that as a woman gets older she gets wealthier because of the silver in her hair, gold in her teeth, gas in her stomach, and lead in her feet.
***All entries must be sent to:
Lockbox 22345
Payment Center #2
Baclaran, Metro Manila
ATTN: JV)

Right at this moment, all three ladies suddenly stop talking, a dramatic and unexplainable phenomenon if you asked me. Then the pianist speaks on the mic, tess mike, tess mike, tess v hanap ka daw ni mike v...

"ladies and gentlemen, here is a requested song, lovingly dedicated to the three loveliest ladies of the night...they're over there in the corner of Charlotte's EB...

To you ladies, this timeless song...

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh..."

Amidst the crooning, the three ladies look at each other and in one ear-piercing chorus scream to their little lungs' delight...

"JOOOBEEERRRTTT!!!"

Time check - 9:15 pm

(concluding)