"Good morning, Joy," Fear says. "How did Riley spend the night?"
Joy gives Fear an astonished look.
"Are you ok?" Fear asks nervously.
"You are . . . you look . . ."
"What's wrong with me?"
"You are taller," Joy says, comparing heights. "Last night we measured the same and now look at yourself..."
"I didn't know we could grow," Fear says. "It's good news, isn't it?"
"Yeah, sure, buddy," Joy says cheerfully.
"You are not afraid of me, right?" Fear says enigmatically.
"No," says Joy. "Why would I? Because we are friends, right?" she says, and friendly taps Fear on the arm.
"And we are partners," Fear emphasizes, returning the tap, though not so joyfully.
"Yeah, we are partners," Joy says, while her glow decreases.
"Because we all need a little bit of Joy, right?" Fear mutters.
"Yes," Joy attempts to make a joke. "And we also need a little fear . . ."
"Yes. Not to make mistakes," Fear dictates. But Joy has no strength to answer and sneaks into a corner.
Ready to leave for school, Riley prepares to go downstairs when she hears her Dad's cell phone ring. She stops when she hears him say 'hello' with a soap-opera voice. She peeks slightly and sees him turn around the table as he talks to someone called Emily.
Tim, looking through Fear's eyes, wants to find out more.
"Zoom in," he tells Lapsus, who operates the remote control. Riley's father is scribbling something on a piece of paper, but Riley can't read what he writes.
"Get closer," Tim orders.
"We can't," Lapsus complains. "Riley's zoom is nothing but her neck and she is not a giraffe, you know?"
In fact, Riley is stretching to see something.
"Well," father concludes at last, "we have a date."
Anger makes a bun with the newspaper whose headline reads:
"Dad has a date?" He approaches the control panel:
"Let's see what this Don Juan has to tell us . . . Sarcasm levels to the fullest and we go down the stairs."
"Hi, Dad. Were you talking to Mom?"
"Let's give him the Clint Eastwood look," Anger says. "Music from the far west. Hold the look for one, two seconds. Dad sweats, he avoids eye contact. He is definitely hiding something."
"Who were you talking to?" Riley mumbles.
"No one," he says, hanging the note in the refrigerator, behind a postcard of a full moon.
Riley is about to approach to read the note, but suddenly the bell rings.
"Oh, Jordan," her dad says, not concealing his relief to hear such a convenient presence.
"This is not over," Riley threatens, staring at him from the door.
Jordan looks up:
"Is everything alright?"
"Come on, we're late," Riley says, obfuscated and chews the words 'a date!' Incredible!"
"I think your parents are about to enter the poetic phase," Jordan says, trying to act wise.
"The what?" Riley growls.
"The phase in which parents begin to use terms such as separating, breaking up, being on a break, having a broken heart, and other metaphors, most of them with the word "broken" in the middle."
"Let's talk about the band," Riley says to change the subject. "Have you decided the name yet?"
"No," Jordan admits, "but we already know what kind of name we want. We need something sad but tender; adult-like but childish in a way, you know? What do you think?"
"What am I? Your manager now?" Riley gets angry just when they arrive at the school door.
Jordan stops and watches her leave:
"I adore her . . ."
BINABASA MO ANG
Deeper Inside out
FanfictionA year after moving to San Francisco, Riley is better than ever. Her hockey team (The Foghorns) is in the finals, everything is going well with her boyfriend Jordan and with mom and dad too. But when everything seems perfect, something happens to mo...
