The Adventures of Peter Valentine

November 2

Peter Valentine woke up early the morning after his novel-in-installments debuted on Wattpad. He stayed in bed for a while, and prayed for global healing from the Covid pandemic, and for world peace. And also especially for those who were tragically affected by Typhoon Rolly in the Bicol region of his home country.
He took his now fully charged phone to the bathroom, and checked his Wattpad account even before his morning ritual of getting Facebook updates. He sat on the cold toilet bowl to pee like a girl because he thought that's what older men should do. God knows how many aged men fall and die in the bathroom while taking a piss in the early morning!
He took his sweet sitting time, and smiled as he read the comments and messages from his first readers. One in particular caught his attention: "Hi, Valentine. Your story is awesome. I like and love your personality. This story is so different from what I usually read here on Wattpad, like I could really feel you. This inspires me. You don't know how much this changes my life."
What the hell? "I like and love your personality?" Where did that come from, Valentine wondered, amused—his profile? Or can people really read so much of the heart of an author from his/her written works? For some perverse reason, he liked the part about his work inspiring this particular reader. And that "how much this changes my life"— that's precious. Because that's Valentine's biggest goal in writing at 51: to change lives. He wanted his work to be meaningful.
Wattpad is another planet, another world. And starting his story on the app is like falling in love all over again. He felt like a giggly school girl getting excited watching the number of his views and followers increase. 752 reads in 12 hours, 555 (like the brand of canned sardines) votes in star icon currency, 557 followers. Wait, did two of his followers fail to award his first chapter a star? He smiled a bigger smile of pure amusement.
Valentine was feeling good even before he made his first cup of coffee. He was looking forward to the day. Guillermo and Gustavo, his young, sexy, and muscular El Salvadoran contractors, were coming in to finish the kitchen renovations. And he wanted to cook adobo for them.
The secret to a great adobo is cooking it with lots of love. But that's no secret really. All cooking must be done with great love. Hell, everything people do must be done with great love and passion, Valentine thought as he took out from the refrigerator the pork and chicken mix that he marinated in salt, pepper, garlic, and a squeeze of lemon after writing Chapter 1 of his novel the night before.
He took to Facebook while having his coffee, and remembered the many invites he received in the previous weeks from writers' groups with strange names: Mansion de Morelli, Autre Sunshine, Trouvaille's Orphanage, Speaks' Haven, Meira's Evacuation Center, Ruscittians Hub, Villa de Amicus, Holae's Sanctuary, Adella Hindi Jinowa, Lair de Crucia, Oeuvre's Hotel & Casino, Del Recarpio, Graveyard of the Unsaid, among many others. These were clearly from the Wattpaders, mostly Gen Z netizens, he met during the online poetry workshop of the writer Peter Solis Nery, also known as ThePSN, who now lives the good life in Los Angeles.
Valentine briefly met the famous Filipino writer in Milan, of all places. This was back in 2017, during his grand tour of Europe after Martin's death. At that time, Valentine was with his town mate and high school friend Diosa waiting for the Il Cenacolo group tour to begin. Diosa had never seen Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century mural in tempera and gesso, The Last Supper, which is housed in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. This, despite having been working as an au pair in the northern Lombardy region of Italy for over fourteen years at that time. Valentine thought a glimpse of the world's most famous L'Ultima Cena would be a great thank you gift for his friend, who invited him to Milan. So he booked the rapid access package tour from Viator, a skip-the-line service that bypassed the three-week wait period even in cold late autumn.
Diosa was taking Valentine's photo outside the Il Cenacolo's tourists' entrance when the friendly Ilonggo writer, who was also booked in the 7:30 p.m. group tour with his movie star gorgeous Italian boytoy du jour Lorenzo, offered to take their picture. At that time, he immediately admired Nery's kindness and friendliness, and they stuck together, with charming Lorenzo tagging along, as an Ilonggo group for the duration of The Last Supper tour.
What was it that the thoughtful Nery said that night after the tour? "There is so much to see in this big wide world, but always, and always, try to see what you can offer to another person."
Valentine considered the wise words as he sautéed the garlic, onion, and ginger for his adobo of love. The El Salvadorans called to say that they were going to be late again. But Valentine wasn't worried.
After he added the meats, bay leaves, and the red of achuete crushed in lukewarm water, Valentine waited for everything to boil. Then, he turned down the electric stove's heat to simmer the dish, and opened his iPad on the kitchen table to write the second chapter of his novel.
As he did so, he already knew that he had to edit Chapter 1, and situate his fictionalized hometown somewhere else but Dumangas. Peter Solis Nery has entered his story, and Nery is the acknowledged literary hero, and distinguished son, of that coastal town of Dumangas, Iloilo.
Before he added vinegar and soy sauce to bring his adobo masterpiece to finish, Valentine gave in to the temptation of opening his Messenger chat box with Luke Paclibar. But his last messages to Luke, now four days old, remained unseen.