You’re Still My Man – English

ACE

He hesitated to knock on Gina’s bedroom door. He halted, then moved forward hesitantly. What the hell happened while he was gone? He asked himself, then he moved forward to knock on the door.

After three knocks, Gina opened the door.

“You know I’m suspicious of you, isn’t your identity dual?” She said. “You know I’ll be really hurt if you hide something from me, Ace. Hmm.. I just thought, you’re a waiter at night and you’re a mystery man at dawn. What if I’m right?”

“So you think I’m like that?”

“Yeah that’s right, and I feel like an idiot for not having known.”

He pulled Gina to sit on the bed and touched her forehead. She’s still hot but not like before. He just wondered why she’s acting like she’s delusional now? He really doesn’t know about this woman, he thought.

“Can you explain what you’re saying, Gina?”

“Are you Zorro?”

“What?”

Gina stood up and turned on the TV.

“There, did you see that show?” She said, pointed at the television. “Do you know what Zorro’s real name is?”

“No. Because I’m not–”

“But of course, you’re more handsome than him, Ace.”

He looked at what she was watching. “We will return to the Mask of Zorro starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones after these short messages.” Said the announcer on TV.

He was just distracted by his senses. It’s a good thing that Gina doesn’t know anything. But the mistake is she thinks of him as Zorro. What the heck?

“How are you feeling, Gina?”

“Like a cornflake.”

“Haha.. what? Are you hungry, huh? Do you want to eat cornflakes?”

Instead of answering him, she just laughed at him. “I’m still hot… just put a towel on me.” She said while holding her forehead.

He stood up so that he could get Gina a medicine and put a wet towel on her. He turned off the TV and even the light in her room. So the only light that’s left is the lampshade. Just enough to see her, but not enough to bother her eyes.

When he returned, Gina was already lying on her bed. He sat beside her on the bed as he put a wet towel on her forehead, folded it twice.

“Tell me about some stories, Ace?” She said.

“What kind of story do you like?”

“Fairy-tale. Do you know the story about ‘The Princess and the Frog’?”

He smiled as Gina lay down on her bed like a child waiting for a bedtime story. He just took the wet towel from her forehead because it would just fall off. “All right, let’s start the story. Once upon a time…” he prompted. “Once upon a time,” then, he began. “There was a beautiful princess…”

“But lonely.” She groaned.

“What?”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“The princess is always beautiful, but lonely.”

“Ah, okay.” He just agreed. “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful but lonely princess.”

“Young princess,” she inserted again.

He now loses his patience with Gina’s intrusion. “A beautiful but lonely princess who should have been married years ago but she was bitchy to her suitors, that’s why they were never able to propose.”

Gina laughed even at the beginning of his story. “Maybe the princess you’re referring to is looking for the perfect man to marry. But the problem is, no man could live up to her expectations.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Maybe she wants a man who is tall, dark and never mind, I mean handsome. He has a sense of horror, I mean humor… and most of all rich.” She chuckled.

“Go ahead, Georgina. Continue the story.”

“Go on, please… I’m just kidding.” She said, and looked at him with puppy eyes.

“The princess found herself alone more and more as the eligible men in her kingdom and the neighboring kingdoms are already married to the women they loved. Then on her twenty-fifth birthday, she decided to visit her grandmother, who lived a full day’s ride away from the castle.” He stopped talking to touch Gina’s forehead to see if she was still hot. But when he could no longer feel the heat on her forehead, he just continued his story. “Along the way to her Grandma’s house, the princess and her servants stopped to have a picnic lunch beside a pond. And of course because she is a princess, she eats alone while her attendants eat far away from her. She was envious of how they talked and had fun, and that is why she wished that someone would come along who she could talk to. Then suddenly, a frog landed smack in the middle of her vegetable salad.”

“Yuck!”

“He’s a clean frog. He spent all of his days in the water, you know.”

“Even though. He’s still a frog, so ugly. But I’ll just ask, who’s telling you that story?”

“I won’t tell.” Then he continued his story. “The frog croaked at her, and the frog was the first to talk to her that day. She was so grateful to the little green guy that she leaned over, and kissed him.”

“I know what will happen next, Ace. Let me guess, the frog turned into a handsome prince.”

“Not quite.”

“Huh?” Her eyes widened.

“That’s the old version you know.” He said. “In my story, the princess turns into a frog.”

Gina just laughed. “I won’t be surprised if that’s what happens in your story. Of course it’s a macho version of you, just go ahead and just continue your story.”

“But promise me first that you won’t interrupt me while I’m telling the story.”

“I will try.”

“Thank you. Needless to say, the princess was so shocked to find herself perched upon a mound of vegetable salad alongside this good-looking frog, her crown slipped down over one eye. The gallant frog used his talented tongue to set the crown right and the princess croaked her thanks. ‘How about a swim in my pond princess?’ The frog asked. “I never learned how?” The princess replied. “Princesses never have any fun. It’s a royal rule”. The frog assured her that he would teach her, and off they went, leaping one over the other, until they reached the water’s edge.”

He wiped a wet towel on both Gina’s arms up to her neck. She sucked in a breath but said nothing. “Now, the princess liked adventure as much as the next person, and for a while everything was wonderful. After all, in the frog world, he was considered tall, dark and handsome, so the princess had no complaints there.”

“She must be a lucky princess.”

“That’s also what she believed. The frog protected her from the dangers of the pond. They shared a lily pad in perfect harmony. As the sun beat upon them, the water soothed their skin. All day they swam and floated as the trees shaded them from the sun.”

“Wow! It looks like they’re happy together.” Gina said as she changed a t-shirt in front of him.

“Life was good for the princess and the frog. They think they are really compatible with each other. And because this frog is so gallant, he caught a fly for her dinner.”

“Yuck!”

“He really tried to feed it to the princess, but he couldn’t convince the poor princess to swallow it. He tried again and again because the frog knew that the princess had to adapt to their lifestyle in order for her to survive. That’s why she had to learn to eat flies. She just had to. Here, drink some water.” He said to Gina, helping her sit up and holding the glass to her lips. When she leaned back, he applied more cool clothes to her arms and continued the story. “However, the frog was a realist, and he saw that the princess would not really survive their way of life. So he had to think another way.”

“Do they love each other?” Gina asked.

He suddenly fell silent at Gina’s question.

“Because they come from both sides of the world, so they don’t deserve each other. So the frog found the courage to kiss the princess and, poof, she was human again. The princess was just sitting on the edge of the pond, then a lily pad snagged on her crown, and she was– ”

“Crying?” Gina guessed, and suddenly he avoided looking at her. “That’s sad. Fairy-tales are supposed to be happy endings.”

“It does. She was glad for the experience because the frog had taught her something important.”

“Like what? Like she will eat a fly in a matter of life or death?”

“That’s what seems right at that time, but it doesn’t mean that she will eat flies forever.” He said and stroked her arm with the cloth. Then again, he continued the story. “The princess climbed into her carriage, and yes, she was sad but wiser. Then at the crossroad to her Grandma’s house, the carriage wheel broke, halting their progress. And do you know who comes along? It’s a chivalrous stranger who helped them fix the wheel, not worrying a bit about dirtying his garments, then accompanying them to her Grandma’s house. The princess just watched him astride his horse as he rode beside the carriage. But take note, he wasn’t tall, dark and handsome, but he was kind and he got charming eyes when he smiled. And he told her that he loved children, he also said that he wanted a dozen of children. The princess thought that maybe she is sad because she is alone and she also wants to have many children when she gets married. The Princess thought that the stranger wasn’t her Prince Charming, but her Knight in Shining Armor. The princess fell in love with the stranger. They got married and they lived happily ever after.”

“But what about that frog?”

“The frog has not forgotten the princess, even though he has already seen the female frog that he will love.”

“So he didn’t really forget the princess?”

“Never.”

She just looked at Gina as she tucked her hands under her cheeks. She has been silent for a long moment, and then finally she spoke at last.

“When the princess was a frog, did they ever make love?”

He swallowed before answering. “Yes, once. Just once.”

“Maybe the princess thought that’s the best thing that ever happened to her in all her life.”

He saw that Gina’s eyes were sleepy and for a while it kept closing. He got up from the bed and touched Gina”s forehead, he was happy that her fever had subsided. And then he gave her a kiss on the forehead. He just stopped when he heard Gina saying something.

“Maybe I need to eat a fly, too.” She said and finally went to sleep.

*****