Worlds Apart 3: The Effem Way

Weng excused himself from the group (a rendezvous of effeminate gays and straight-acting gays or SAGs) when one straight guy came. He guided the hottie to Mama Wanda’s sanctuary – a small, studio-type parlor/dormitory. From where I was sitting, I could see that the dorm’s lights were turned off and neither an open window nor an open ceiling could permit a spark of light inside Mama Wanda’s pad. I assumed that nothing but pure darkness ruled the entire place. The guy, they said, was there to render his services.

The conversation over the differences of “a SAG life” and “the effem way” was vaguely sliced to endure the disturbance. Not long later, the interesting topic recommenced. But a lot of things were running inside my head that time. I simply can’t concentrate. I was trying to suck up yet one life’s marvel:

How to score a straight, young guy in Malabon?

Give him 100 pesos.

Seriously, a hundred pesos ($1.90) could help you get a guy to bed. For gays in Malabon (and probably around similar places, too), that’s something to celebrate. Mama Wanda is perhaps one of those who are more than gratified to take advantage of the situation. The hair salon keeps him occupied each day and it’s his only source of income. But regardless, paying guys for sex has always been part of his budget plan. One sexual feat a night usually concludes his everyday affairs. He doesn’t dream much in life. Hopelessness, I say, is possibly more like it.

I feel sorry about how poverty could turn some of us into one person we never wanted to be. This guy, for example, who Mama Wanda just had sex with, was only forced against his will to have sex with gays to earn money. If you were in his shoes, will you feel all the miseries in life? Or is life harsher when you’re in Mama Wanda’s position?

Not too long later, when the rendezvous nears its end and the crowd shrunk in number, I had a great chance to interview Mama Wanda. A lot of inquiries troubled my head but only one flooded out. “What happened in the dark?” Mama Wanda knew too well what’s in my head that he persisted to tell me everything he could.

While he was at the peak of his story, some words he said reverberated inside my head. I thought I lost my sense of hearing in a split second. I verified, used different words and verified again. It was, it was … beyond my belief. The guy, he said, performed fellatio on him. What I had in my green mind turned out to be extremely incorrect. A straight guy performs fellatio to a gay guy?

How to make one straight guy in Malabon gay?

Give him 100 pesos.

Wrong. It was so wrong. It took me a while to believe Mama Wanda’s account. Why he would lie to me, anyway? The others, who were also listening to us, confirmed it to me. They were even surprised to witness my reaction. Seriously, am I the only one here? Can I see hands?