Kaban ni Lino Labra: INAMANG NGA PAHUNGAW SA DUHA KA PARION

With two unmarried partners in the office, marriage's lives of the others partners in Room 202 have never been boring since these ex seminarians had joined our firm. Atty. San Tzu once commented in gist, "unsa kaha do kong kita ra ni CKD ni Mel ning opisinaha no. Mura tag boang... pagka boring" in light reaction to his LOVE THAT NEVER WAS STORY in law school days. This is his never ending story that would always make his day in the office. Once told and recalled, his day would be complete even without the acceptance fee.

We are lucky to have two partners in the firm who are ex seminarians. I still have to dig deeper why these two did not become men of clothe knowing both as academically achievers in the seminary. I heard that they were sent out of monastery to dance with the worldly temptation as test of their sacred vow of sanctity.  In less than a year of regency, both realized that God's call was actually a wrong number.  At 30's,  they are still single and continue to be naughty bachelors without a hint of entertaining God's motion for reconsideration to be back home where they used to belong. Since my itinerary everyday as lawyer and driver of my queen has always been hectic, I did not have much time gallivanting with them after office hours for almost a year now. Hearsay it may be, I heard that these two seminarian partners led and in fact the leaders in the office followed them wherever they go after office hours to break the predictable and monotonous lives in the office. This is what Atty. San Tzu calls as entertaining part in the firm having young and vibrant partners in tandem with the wisdom of the old like him.

While writing this piece, I considered yesterday as my longest day in the week. I did not have court hearing, but I spent the whole day hearing my clients untold stories of success and frustrations in their cases until late in the afternoon. After sending off the last batch in waiting, I felt saturated of stamina while absorbing negative energies from my clients' legal concern. But like falling mana from heaven, a therapeutic story just barged in with the pretty and gorgeous story teller from the Court of Appeals cutting short my longest day. Let's just address her as panera for brevity as I addressed her the first time we met in a group's Friday evening affair a month ago. She was a guest in that dinner gathering hosted by one ex-seminarian in the office. I am not an expert on human behavior but there was something I noticed with the behavior of this ex seminarian that raised everyone's eyebrows why he was uneasy that evening and subservient to the needs of the guest.

I dismissed it outright as one of their unguarded moments  because there was nothing peculiar about the two except that they were seated too close to each other to be not mistaken as duo. At the back of my mind then, both were lawyers and without legal impediment anyway. At their age, panera and this ex seminarian needed no parental guidance from me being the most senior in the gathering. I did not even ask if they were already the one as I did not mind personal lives of my partners in the firm as matter of personal policy. But I noticed that this ex seminarian had changed emotional colors from blue to red for the past few days after he hosted that dinner with panera as the guest. I got the connection with that incident only yesterday afternoon after the accidental visit of panera in the office for an official business. Without me asking about what happened next after that eventful dinner, somebody opened up a story of LOVE GAINED AND LOVE LOST between panera and her host.

I called it therapeutic intermission in my longest day yesterday because there is no story in this world that is so pleasant to the ears except the story of LOVE GAINED AND LOVE LOST. As love is universal, it has no boundaries as to the age, profession, race or status in life. No amount of credentials and qualifications can rationalize the mystery of love because even reason does not know. Why I love hearing love stories so much because I did not hear much stories about love at the age where I was supposed to be the story teller. A study shows that ninety percent of the subject of songs and movies is centered on love. History is not dearth on stories of war and alliances because of love. Spain as a nation was born with the marriage of Queen  Isabela of Castille and King Ferdinand of Aragon. The Trojan War was triggered because of Helen of Troy. That is why I was happy with panera's presence in the office yesterday to listen the unfinished story of her LOVE THAT NEVER WAS and the ex seminarian's story of LOVE GAINED and LOVE LOST.

For panera, it was LOVE THAT NEVER WAS because I see in her as a woman who is hard to get and to please. I know that this ex seminarian has given her pasalubong the other day but that was not enough. I heard that the ex seminarian drove her home one evening, but panera needed more than that to be mesmerized. As eyewitness, I saw this ex seminarian violating my right to privacy by viewing panera's RATED R album in Kalamgaman Island through my facebook account. I was told that this ex seminarian was hesitant to manifest his feeling to panera because he heard that his application for preliminary injunction was dismissed outright without the benefit of notice and hearing.

I can read between the lines that my partner has gained love knowing panera in short period of time. Whether that love would be lost or not, it depends if the stories told yesterday have factual basis or not. I have still to know if in his hometown in Mindanao, this ex seminarian has also gained love because if it is proven to be true, he would surely be losing love of panera whose "love that never was" is a story of a woman in waiting to be loved in a place where there is no space or time. I don't know what was the real score and story there was between panera and this ex seminarian but I can surmise that the experience of panera with him must have been a  BEAUTIFUL NIGHTMARE. To the ex seminarian, it would be his SWEET DREAM.

(Bug-os ang  pasalamat sa KAHAYAG ngadto sa nagsulat niining  artikulo  nga si ATTY. PAULINO  B. LABRADO, Senior Partner sa P.B. LABRADO  and PARTNERS. Magsusulat  ug magpaambitan siya sa iyang mga  hunahuna mahitungod sa  nagkalain-laing hisgotanan nga makita sa  maukiton niyang mata ug mga kasikas nga madungog sa  iyang maabtikong dunggan.)