Before the third episode of the Philippines Graphic Literary Workshop (PGLW) concluded on April 18, we knew that we had one more thing that we can offer our bright young fellows: a starting platform for their creative endeavors. Here, we present one of their final outputs from the workshop. We also asked them to provide an artwork that they think best represents their stories. Read on.
10 minutes before opening her paresan shop, Perry enters the bathroom to make herself presentable to the customers, especially to the so called suki in their town. As she’s about to put a wax on her head, facing the mirror, she noticed that her long wavy hair was back. Her fingers instantly felt the tip of her hair wherein some split ends were visible. She can feel her hair bouncing as she goes in a circle manner, walking back and forth in front of the mirror. She immediately closes her eyes, silently wishing that Toti Marie will show up and shakes her back to her senses.
A week after their first encounter, the older lesbian have scolded her about many things—particularly Perry’s indecisive change of style. Toti Marie only left a huge tub of man’s wax for Perry to use. Perry has pleaded for the older lesbian to give her something from her precious collection of silver rings. Toti jokes that she will rather give her used underwear. The young one also shows her eagerness to ask about tips on where she can buy cheap unisex clothes like oversize graphic shirts, masculine tees, and wide leg jeans. She frowns after hearing Toti’s answer—better qualities of clothes are usually found in the mall.
5 minutes before opening her shop, Perry is more overstimulated due to the loss of her lip piercing. She was too pissed wiping off the pinkish lipgloss that glistens on her lips. Its long lasting stain can definitely beat many high end glosses sold by international make-up brands for sure. Many tissues are wasted as she also notices that the mark of the metal piercing used was also nowhere to be found, totally erased in her face. Perry immediately felt regret if the metal would be permanently lost due to its unique design.
2 minutes before opening her shop, Perry aggressively breaks down, copying the girl from the famous Eskinol TVC advertisement, doing a walling. Her bushy and thick eyebrows were back, completely destroying her perfected thin lined eyebrows with a slit on the left that she had experimented with last week. She remembered how shaky the hand of Toti was as she guided it to perform the cutting of her eyebrow. Aside from being terrified, Toti cannot hide her amusement towards the child mainly because of two reasons. One, letting a complete stranger or so she thought to herself, possibly ruin her appearance. The other reason was due to Perry’s lack of hesitation to stay away from conforming to the usual norm of being a lesbian.
“Tangina, tanggal angas ko dito,” Perry sighs before finally deciding to go out inside the bathroom.
Perry then proceeds to the kitchen just beside the bathroom to see if the beef inside the pressure cooker is now soft, after using a fork to find out if the meat is peeling through the bones, she then pours three liters of water and mixes it to the beef broth. Before the soup even gets to a super slimy consistency, she drops the star anise. Although she has been selling pares and mami for over three years, one of Perry’s secrets is her dislike of the star anise condiment.
As she proceeds to the most tiring and boring step—stirring the soup continuously, she imagines the comments she will receive from her suki to her get up that they’ve never seen before. She recalls one of her old female customers consistently asking about her partner. She then answers about the need to be ‘astig’ in order for girls to admire her. The old lady then jokes about bringing her granddaughter on the paresan for Perry to meet. Now that Perry is back on her old get up she felt even more hopeless of finding a girlfriend as soon as possible. She even felt like throwing up on the thought of men hitting on her again—repeating the same old banats that make her eyebrows furrowed.
One minute before opening the shop, Perry starts to feel the need to change clothes. As she is currently wearing a muscle tee with her cap facing backwards and faded color jorts partnered with cowboy boots. She then recalls what her celebrity lesbian crushes usually wear. Repeating what she looked like inside the bathroom, she felt the mismatch between her appearance and her clothes. Perry scratches her head as she almost forgets how she has already thrown most of her feminine presenting clothes—mini skirts, floral dresses, and even see through tops. She wonders where she can even borrow clothes at this time? The paresan usually opens at 5 in the morning, to provide food for those who are in morning shift and those who will go home after work.
As she felt her hand getting numb, she decided to taste the soup for her approval. Three years have passed and still she cannot endure the aftertaste of the star anise. She still navigates on finding alternatives of her current condiments and plants to reimagined the classic Filipino pares dish.
30 seconds before opening her shop, Perry forgets to check if her garlic rice is enough to serve the number of people that will eat in the span of 5 to 8 in the morning. Panic runs through her brain completely forgetting her plan to change clothes. She picks up her phone, looking for who to contact, as she rushes to look at the rice displayed outside. The smell of garlic lingers in the air as soon as she opens the pot. She feels relief as she looks at the amount of rice almost overflowing in the pot.
Perry immediately felt shivers on her spine as she felt the light tap on her shoulder. She tried convincing it was just the morning breeze. A loud scream filled the shop as she turned around, seeing Toti Marie holding the container of the beef pares.
“Nice lip gloss you got there,” Toti teased Perry as she put down the container.
“I think of getting a permanent tattoo,” Perry answered as she facepalm due to embarrassment.
Julia Francine Malanos
