Toto and the Boys II: George

Chapter 1

Did you miss me? Please answer what Dora’s viewers would and say, “Yes, Toto!”

But if you don’t, I understand (no, not really). I bet you had been busy to even spare a thought about an old, beaten Beetle Volkswagen.

Oh, you’re new? Was that quite a shocker?

Read the freaking Prologue again then!

But if you really insist, let me explain…

Once upon a time, there was a great German company named (translated in English since I also find it hard to pronounce the original one) German Labour Front. And they decided to start making cars after learning that only one in fifty Germans owned cars around that time in history, 1937 to be exact.

Fast forward, fast forward, fast forward to the future.

I was made and I should say I was glad I never had to experience the World War II. I was made way after that horrible war. I was sold a couple of times. I gathered a lot of mileage. I was sold to three cool women, or boys as what most people would call them, and they named me Toto.

Yep, I am Toto and I am a yellow Beetle Volkswagen.

Surprised? I bet you weren’t because I already surprised you one story ago or at the Prologue. Seriously, I am rolling my headlights here.

And you are probably here right now, wasting your time reading a narrative from a car’s point-of-view, because you had heard of my first story. Yeah, Jackie’s story. Rings any bell?

And now you are wondering who’s next? Duh, obviously, it is time for George, or Georgie as what I would lovingly call her.

I would try to be as thorough with her story because it could get a bit complicated as Jackie’s story was. But this time, you might just see a little bit more of action. That was expected of Georgie. She was always in action.

So, let me start the story with a boring narrative of Jordan Ledesma.

Yes, the guy who started it all--the guy who gave me the creeps months and months ago when he was tailing Georgie for whatever reasons I never found out.

I never knew a lot about Georgie’s childhood or her past like I did about Dannie’s. I still get a little shiver down my metallic spine (if I had any) whenever I would think about Dannie’s past so let me just forget about it for now until the time was right for me to spill all the beans.

So, as I had said, I didn’t know a lot about Georgie’s past because she rarely talked about it. She was the kind of person who would rather live the moment. She never liked talking about her family and everyone, especially Jackie and Dannie, never questioned her. Everyone just assumed she was not in good terms with them.

Which was true, you know.

Georgie never had her parents come into their apartment. She would visit them, and she would take me with her, but never with anyone else. And she never stayed longer than two or three hours. Whatever happened during those visits, I never knew.

Until the day Jordan Ledesma showed up.

I still remembered that day when he picked her up and they went out.

By then, Jackie was not around because she went out of town to have some soul searching or something. Dannie was home, but I didn’t know what Georgie told her when she went out.

I expected her to take me with her, but she didn’t.

She was gone for about two hours or so and when she returned she was on foot. Jordan Ledesma’s BMW was not around. She came home alone and bothered.

She looked bothered. Her Chinese eyes were barely visible as she walked inside the apartment and I wondered why. I was expecting her to appear angry as she was when she left with Jordan Ledesma.

What happened, Georgie? I asked, but as always I never got a reply.

What happened that night was not even explained by the next events that followed. In fact, things got confusing on my part. I didn’t know what was happening with her because she didn’t talk to me all the time whenever she was driving me like Jackie and Dannie would.

But I got a hint that she was in deep shit when Jordan Ledesma came by Art District, one of the local places for drinks and music the boys often went to in Bacolod during the weekends. By that time, Jackie was back and she was happily in love with her boyfriend/boss/ex-fake-boyfriend, Dean.

Georgie told Jordan he was not acting according to their agreement.

Yeah, that agreement again. I didn’t know a thing about it, I promise. I was at a loss.

But then the guy said something that completely placed some of the pieces together in my engine-filled brain.

“Our parents want to talk to us.”

Georgie was leaning against me that time. “They already did that. The folks settled the matter, right? And why does my presence matter anyway? It’s not like my words would be heard.”

Jordan looked at her for a long while, his face giving a hint of apprehension and stress though he was fast to cover it with that pathetic flat mask of his.

“They want to set our wedding date before the year ends.”

Georgie jumped away from me in surprise. “What?!”

And that was the beginning of months of torment on my part. It was the day I finally knew about Georgie’s secret, slash, forced engagement to Jordan Ledesma.

The day after that, I learned of their agreement.

It was an agreement they thought they could both win. But it was a completely complicated one, I tell you.