Chapter II: The Day After

By early morning the main highway of the city is a cacophony of sounds. The city never sleeps and everyone seems to have the same enthusiasm to start the new year with the right attitude. Camp Rock ascended to the top primarily because of its human resources. Its strategic location may have helped somewhat but its people made everything achievable. A lot of businessmen here literally came out of nowhere, out of nothing. Take for example the ever smiling Mr. Ron Varias, the king of sweets, desserts and delicacies. He started as a banana-que and turon vendor, setting up his commerce in front of elementary schools. When the bill was passed prohibiting the selling of food outside elementary schools, he made the big jump to start a franchise for his delicacies, using the small amount he profited from his small time business and the money he received from his evening work after his resignation. He now owns thirty stores around the state selling yema, banana-que,turon, cuchinta, bibingka, maruya and a lot more. There’s also Ms. Jocylene Santiago, who owns schools that cater to special children. She was just an ordinary teacher, took and finished with flying colors her masteral, and a couple of doctorate degrees from a reputable school in Connecticut. Her extraordinary zest to help special children stemmed from his son of her first marriage with actor Craig Shaffer. Her child was suffering from Pervasive Developmental Disorder. He died at the age of 10 due to Cystic Fibrosis. Instead of succumbing to depression, she devoted her life to helping children. Jocylene now owns, with her husband Allan Santiago, a learning institution in more than half of the states in the whole nation. Then there’s Marlowe Branch, who inherited a couple of islands from his grandparents and converted them into paradise, he created Pairidaeza which literally means paradise. The rest is history.

Magallanes Avenue came to life earlier than usual. This twenty kilometer stretch has six lanes on either side of the road, trees lined at the center, and has a state of the art rail transit running down below. This thoroughfare houses boutiques of the biggest names in fashion, more like that of the fashion avenue in Hollywood. Huge hotels and establishments find this highway a good home for their own ventures. Magallanes highway is in fact a statement of how far and high the Camp Rock city has become in terms of economic prosperity. Thirty five floors above is Sean’s workplace. This 2,000 square meter floor houses RC Victuals, an up and coming player in the restaurant and catering industry. A rather modest office beautified with world-class furniture specially made from Metropolitan Zeebu. The Calloways’ patriarch, Ricardo Calloway started this company from virtually nothing. Convincing bank managers to loan him the money needed to put up the business. Hard work, perseverance and love for the craft allowed the company to expand from Camp Rock city to almost all the big cities of the state.

“Sir, it’s your mother on line 2!” The angelic voice of Virna reverberated through the room.

“I’ll take it Virn, thank you!” A half-awake Sean murmured

“OK, you need anything else Sir? you look like you could use a month’s rest.” Virna affectionately offered. She’s not used to seeing her boss so wasted after a party. Not that Sean doesn’t like to party, he always looks fresh in the morning after a good party even after knocking down a good number of RHs. Not this morning. Poor kid. Virna thought. She sensed a deep problem somewhere in there.

“A good cup of coffee will do Ms. Salimbangon! Thank you!” Sean replied to his single-mom secretary, a petite but sexy lady. A spate of not so good relationships made her toss in the towel, at least for now and concentrated on raising her 6 year old daughter.

“A cup of coffee coming right up!” mimicking a McDonald’s waitress. “And oh, your mother is still on line 2” Virna rejoined.

“Morning! And how’s my beautiful mom doing?” Sean managed to maintain a good voice.

“I’m OK. God is good! I do hope all of you are doing fine there! So how’s the company doing? Your siblings here are giving me these questions about our business only you and God know the answers. I cannot expect to receive an answer from HIM so I’ll ask you instead. Apparently it’s been a month and they haven’t heard a thing from you. It’s a family business my son, you have to keep everybody in the loop.” Mrs. Calloway, a fairly beautiful mother, all of her 60 years, wasted no time in getting to the point.

“I’m really sorry mother, I’ve been very busy the past couple of months. Were in the brink of making a deal with a rather big company, and I wouldn’t want to preempt it. You don’t count the chicks if they haven’t yet found its way out of its shell. You taught me that. I was planning to have a conference with the family after we get the ink on this one.” Sean explained.

“Well that wasn’t hard now was it? Now at least I have something to tell them. God bless you son! You really are a bright man! I’m so proud of you! If only your father’s here!”

“Well, he’s not here and neither are you. Thank you anyway! I’m keeping my fingers crossed mom. Rest assured I will call for a conference next week whatever happens. Bye bye now. Take care and send my hugs to everyone. “A sudden burst of pain hit him in the head. Sean thought, I could really use a months rest! Where’s that coffee?

Back to Casa Mohica, it’s still 9 in the morning and with the exception of Rolly, who is just garbage as hell, there’s no clue of a big party that just happened the night before. Everything is clean, water hoses whirling, cars are shining, and the play of sweet music from the organ filled the mansion. The Guts are not expecting a guest or any head of state visiting, but if you are man of importance, being always ready comes in handy.

Raymond swore he never felt this good in his whole life! Sex life, that is. He is a self-proclaimed God-given gift to women. He’s been with all of them from young magazine models, college nursing students, career-driven ladies, and even married women. Not one of them worth keeping and not even close to his standards. He’s a pig. And the pig has found an angel. They just finished making love for the nth time since early dawn.

On the other side of the bed is Ms. Perez. Angel was brought up in the Mainland US, specifically Texas, from a Caucasian mother and Asian father. She has two other sisters from a failed first marriage of her mother. Rumor has it that her sisters are as lewd as her and it usually is the reason of a nasty quarrel in the family. Angel has frequented this pacific state ever since her high school days and has long been in love with the tropical climate, relatively less expensive food and beverages, and of course its exotic men. She just had her breast enlarged eight months before, couple that with her gym-toned body and 5’8” frame, it’s hard not to notice her. She usually stands out in the crowd. But she’s a bitch’s bitch to put it calmly. She sleeps with all of them. She’s a hog. She’s found her match, and she’s happy for it.

“Mornin Baby!” a kiss from Raymond

And she obliged. “You want me too prepare our breakfast? How do you like your eggs?” a teasing Angel grinned.

“Oh I like them just fine, you leave them alone now! Let the housemaid do the breakfast. What do you say we hit it again?”

And they did the nth plus one more time.

In the middle of Camp Rock city erects a forty-floor huge international hotel, Le Grimaldi. Originated in France, this hotel giant has expanded aggressively in the last couple of years after merging with several middle players in the hotel industry. The Legaspi family had a hard time initially convincing the consortium in investing their money in the Philippines, a new state accepted in the union about ten years ago. More so, the Legaspis, known hoteliers, are encouraging the group to put up business in the southern part of the state, which has a history of terrorist bombings and Islamic insurgency. But that was an era ago and this bustling southern island is known as a Pacific get-away destination, a fact Rizniel’s family leaned on heavily in winning over the Grimaldi group.

Designed after its French counterparts with a little taste of Filipino thrown here and there, the hotel is just magnificent. This awe-inspiring edifice usually houses high ranking government officials, big time businessmen, as well as celebrities whenever they visit the city.

Most important guest for today is the head of the state himself, the governor, William Concepcion. A stout man in his mid sixties, the patches of baldness in his hair is a testament of his being a veteran on the political arena. Started at a young age of 30, he entered the political scene as an inspired councilor in the city of Zeebu. After two successful runs at the same position he finally took the office of mayoralty of that same world class city. There was no way of stopping him from there; he ascended as a governor of the state winning a landslide vote. He is adorned by the public for his strong will and determination to fight corruption, for not stepping on righteous others on his way up, and for his being religious, on public. The latter playing a vital role to get the votes because of the state’s predominant Christian voters.

He is in his usual presidential room with customary bodyguards protecting from the outside. Mr. Concepcion is having a breakfast of omelet, bread and butter and hot coffee over a bunch of newspapers. But he hasn’t touched his meal yet; he’s glued on CNN’s breaking news concerning a high ranking male official in Washington being caught on tape with another man! It would have been a small dot on the press radar were it not for the fact that the official is a Senior National Security Adviser of the President, married to a woman, and has two kids. A scandal of war proportion like this is sure to rock the high office. The governor hurriedly rises from his crouching sitting position and awakens the man beside him, his lover of early thirties.

“You have to get out of here! Now!” A sense of urgency in the governor’s voice.

“What? Now? Why???” The perplexed young guy asked.

“Now! For Christ’s sake, stop being a kid and stop asking questions! Do as I say! Get dressed, and get out, my guard will take care of you!”

He was chauffeured out of the hotel in an instant. Nobody knew where he came from and why was he there; except the governor, his bodyguards, the lover himself and Rizniel Legaspi, the hotel’s general manager.