THY KINGDOM COME

Just like most everyone, I have to earn a living to live. I am currently working for a small office which resembles a cult or a kaharian somewhere nung unang panahon. I became part of this kingdom upon the prodding of a former officemate who left just before I came in for unknown reasons. Here the women rule as the very few men that we have are doing mostly just dirty work for the queen and her ilk. Some of these men are only partially men. The cast of characters will be revealed as the story unfolds.
The kingdom is headed by Reyna Bosabos, a vavaboom character who likes to showcase her nice legs as she goes around stirring up the her harassed subjects. Reyna B likes to be on top of things and in so doing makes sure that everything is to her liking. She can be behind you looking on top of your shoulder to prevent you from surfing the net or chatting and makes sure you’re focus on the job that she wants done exactly the way that suits her at a particular time. That could change depending on her moods and PMS manifestations. Never, never cross the reyna as you will be her beast of burden for the rest of your and her life. In fact, this could very well be our 11th commandment. Making life difficult would be an understatement, it’s more like living in hell while on earth if ever you unfortunately cross her as I would learn the hard way.
Reyna B likes to surround herself with alalays. There are eight such alalays here. One is of course her secretary. This is the exception to the women rule but he’s always with women so he can actually be a honorary woman which he is dreaming he was born as. HW is always with the women alalays and is happy about that because he always seems to have problems with his lovelife or kin. The women alalays are good crying shoulders, advisers, and general support system whenever the heart of HW is bruised. HW also runs a lending facility fully collateralized by the borrower’s ATM card with revealed PIN that has been funding source for many cash-strapped employees of other offices.
The most highly placed woman alalay and the current apple of the eye of Reyna B is someone I would call Tiburcia. I don’t really understand if T would fall under women alalays except that she goes to the ladies’ room. Oh well, it’s all a matter of choice. Anyway, this post has nothing to do with gender issues…… T used to be the rag tag player who would do anything to please her Reyna. T came from the outside. The Reyna was very much pleased with her all-out support and never say never attitude that she was rewarded with instant promotion. She thinks she’s indispensible and lets the whole office know that she cannot be absent from work even if she’s dying. Why? Because the world will crumble if they fail to alalay the Reyna. T, to the eyes of the innocent bystander, appears to good to be true and a no-nonsense player. Courteous to a fault, she can just as easily dispense all courtesy and backstabs you at the Reyna’s prodding. She also has this penchant for bragging about her educational attainment and seemed to believe that perfect English is the basis of a job well done. On times she misses her cues, she raises hell if you point it out to her citing fatigue and lack of sleep as a worn-out excuse. She has no problem getting away with it as she’s got the Reyna by her side and the all-out support of all alalays.
Santita used to be the apple of the eye of the Reyna but appears to have lost some of her clout because she has been spending more time with her family. To Reyna B, family and everything that has to do with your life outside of the office is a BIG NO NO. Heard from reliable sources in the office that, the Reyna once asked a staff to choose between work and his family. ….poor guy has resigned since for unknown reasons. Back to S, she is still well-placed if you ask me. Considering that even if she is spending more time for her family, that seems to be overlooked compared to other employees in the same situation. She can get away with it and still manage to paint a good picture of herself to the Reyna. She is seen as one who can’t break a plate (di ba makabasag pinggan) as she is soft-spoken and appears to always be subsob sa trabaho as she types away for hours on her pc. This S, however, is christened as such because there is this dark side to her which is hard to pinpoint but is there just the same. In her gentle ways, you can see her meanness in treating people outside their circle as she wields her power derive from her closeness with the Reyna.
Both T and S have benefited from the Reyna’s generosity in terms of phenomenal career advancements over more senior and equally qualified staff who are non-alalays.
Babaeng Rizalista is a women alalay who lives and plays the cult member role well. Her religious affiliation does not allow women to wear certain clothes and style their hair. In so doing, she could put my lelang to shame. BR thinks she’s God’s gift to mankind and go around prancing probably believing she’s Einstein because she is capable of all these wizardry on the computer. BR is the alalay to the apples of the Reyna’s eyes…. unexpected but still a true alalay and much more…. unexpected because she was educated in a school known for speaking their minds. Yet, here she is content about being the dirty hand in many of the office’s events….. Please take note that these are events masked as work even if the preparations took 25 hours everyday for one year and squeeze out all the blood, sweat, and tears of all alalays and selected non-alalays. Mostly hiding behind her desk concocting all imaginable templates for all sorts of reports that the office compiles, she can say a mouthful when allowed the freedom. This is another character who seems to think she’s God’s (whoever that would be to their cult) gift to mankind. When actually, she would hardly be missed if she’s non-existent because she’s nowhere in sight most of the time.
B1 and B2 are to be described together. Like the comic series, one cannot exist without the other. But B can also stand for a lot of things. If you see them, you know what I mean.
The way I see it B1 is also a Reyna’s delight because she is the super alalay of all the alalay…..the right hand of the Reyna. I will caution on mistakings B1 for BR. She also has a rather distinct religious affiiliation that I have heard only for the first time and I never quite understood what it is all aout in B1's preaching. They have similar appearances except that B1 has more liberal clothing choices which has not taken advantage of. B1 appears to be on the verge of climax whenever she paves the way for the Reyna’s entry into the office as she carries her stuff. Remember Nora Aunor in Bona….pretty much like that. A good example happened not so long ago when she appeared to be the royal guard announcing the return of Her Highness the Reyna with matching twinkle, twinkle little stars in her eyes as she glides to the office carrying baggages upon the Reyna’s return from a very long hiatus. In return, because she can’t be promoted bigtime because of certain requirements which she can’t fulfill at the moment or maybe in her lifetime (because some are just innate to the person), she was given the enviable task of managing all the non-essential tasks in the office with full resource support. How’s that for a super alalay. She’s mainly responsible for ensuring that appropriate spaces in the document are tabbed with a sign in here red or yellow sticker; making sure that time card entries are the same with the guard’s entries; distribution of pasalubongs; buying and packing gifts from the Reyna; making sure the driver is available at the Reyna’s and her beck and call as the same driver juggles his route among the alalays many official and personal trips; and other tasks as necessary for the Reyna’s caprices. All these tasks she fulfills with passion and lust matched only by again Nora in Bona as she serves Philip. B1 takes pain in trying to appear cute by mimicking a little girl's voice and feigning ignorance which can be quite hard to take for a huge woman in her 40s.
What about B2…… B2 falls within the scheme of things. She partners mainly with B1 in making things happen for the Reyna. Because just like B1, she seems to be also lacking in something innate in a person, she was destined to be an alalay of forever. It helped that they are friends. B2 has also benefitted greatly from her past association and unfailing loyalty to the Reyna and her chosen alalays. She is unpretentious and can say a mouthful at the most unexpected moment and actually get away with it. This characteristic has even endeared B2 to the cast. Her job is very similar to B1. In fact, she assists B1 with many of her tasks but she cannot be deluged with too many responsibilities because she cracks at pressure. She appears to be a reasonable person at times but somehow her loyalty has corroded her somewhat bubbly persona.
The pawns are the clappers, laughers, clowns at particular times, errand persons, in other words, the all-around alalays of the more senior alalays, more like the alipin sagigilid. Because they need something that the Reyna and the senior alalays can make happen, they dance to whatever tune is played. They are incapable of thinking straight for their own good. They complete the cast and are good options when numbers are needed for some missions like in the character assassination of certain persons in the office.
All alalays have benefitted from various monetary, material and latent benefits not traditionally received by a mere employee who toils to earn his keep. They also have priority stake over resources of the office which they can use in any way they see fit under the careful machinations of T, B1, and the Reyna. Much to the chagrin of those outside the kingdom, these accommodations have been unabashedly paraded right under our noses without qualms or inhibitions whatsoever.
Let’s complete the cast of characters.
Neither here nor there are some people in the office who do not want to rock the boat to stay alive. They have stayed disturbingly quiet for so many years gritting their teeth and who knows hyperventilating after rounds of insults from the Reyna.
No balls are people who are in a position to do something for the lot of the suffering people in the office but chose to look the other way and do nothing ….. sometimes even dancing with the powers that be.
There are those who couldn’t take it a minute longer and chose to take a stand. In the process, these people got hit by the Reyna’s evil ways and her cohorts’ collaboration. These people might have resigned, been reassigned or are requesting reassignment if they are not dead by now. Because these people are out of the circle, they are the favorite targets of the Reyna and her ilk depending on their moods. These people have at one time or another been the flavor of the moment of the utterly disgusting Reyna B and have been dealt bad blows carried out by her alalays.
Well, the Reyna can have moments of sanity at times as she couldn’t be caught with her hands dirty and lets her cohorts deliver the blows. Many times, however, she had been caught with her foot in her mouth.
Just when I thought I outlived ass-kissing when I left my high school, I am back hating to kiss it but nevertheless have to deal with it. Watch out as this plot thickens in the next segue.