IT”S been five years since AJ Perez’s death and I still find it difficult writing about him. But I have to write about him to help his loved ones passion project, a book titled A Smile of Hope.
Written by AJ’s mother, Ma. Victoria Sarte Perez, with author Zenaida Roy-Almario, A Smile of Hope is about AJ’s life and how his loved ones coped with the loss. Proceeds of the book will benefit AJ’s scholarship program and La Salle Greenhills’s Adult Night High School. AJ’s father, Tito Gerry, wishes the book will inspire young people and even their families with its lessons on healing and moving on. A Smile of Hope is available in select National Book Store outlets. While this book is indeed a joyous remembrance of the spirit of AJ, I still have somewhat of a heavy heart remembering him.
You see, AJ and I were tweeting and texting each other the day he died. He reacted to some tweet of mine and then I reminded him that he still “owed” me.
What did he owe me? A bag of Lay’s potato chips and coffee from Starbucks. How did he owe me? He lost a bet.
That bet was on who will emerge as the Oscar winners that year. We were talking about the actors and the films nominated, and he was very passionate about The Social Network and how he thought it deserved to win Best Picture. I simply told him it won’t win. He then jokingly challenged, “Wanna bet on it?” And since we’re not the gambling type (I find betting money vulgar…sorry naman! May ganon?!?!), I said that instead of cash, we could have innocuous stuff for our bets.
We narrowed down our bets to the major categories. I forget now which were his bets for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress; Best Actor and Actress; all I can remember is that we agreed on some choices, while in the other categories, for each one he lost, I would lose in another, so we just cancelled each other out.
Except for the Best Director and Best Picture categories. Since he believed in The Social Network as the best picture of the year and David Fincher as the best director, he placed his bets on them. He couldn’t believe I chose Tom Hooper and The King’s Speech. So he started enumerating how The Social Network was the superior movie and how he was affected by it. I just kept quiet.
Of course, at a young age, he was still oblivious to the politicking that happens in the Oscars and that the academy is mostly made up of old geezers who practice bloc voting. I don’t know why I didn’t tell him.
Of course the obvious reason is I’m a devious psychopath who revels in the defeat of others just for a bag of junk food and a cuppa. Or I just didn’t want to burst his bubble and thought that he should discover what I already know for himself. Or maybe I, too, wasn’t so sure about my choices. Come Oscar night and when The King’s Speech won big, he was the one who texted me first congratulating me and reminded me that he owed me. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even remember we had a bet.
But such was AJ Perez. He knew how to keep his promises. Maybe I should have still gone to Starbucks that fateful day, and kept my promise to wait for him after ASAP. If I, indeed, saw his spirit that day, I would have told him that life for a lot of people became sadder with his death. And that he will always be sorely missed. But that heaven was waiting for him…and that five years, hence, he will still inspire and touch a lot of lives.