Alfredo Salazar was engaged to Esperanza but fell in love with Julia Salas when they met. He began neglecting Esperanza and lying to spend time with Julia. On the day of his wedding to Esperanza, his thoughts were still with Julia. Esperanza forgave him and they married, but Alfredo's heart still belonged to Julia. Years later when Alfredo was sent on an assignment near Julia's hometown, he visited her and found she never married. He realized his love for Julia was just an idealization and Esperanza was his true destination. Alfredo apologized for ruining the lives of the two women and resolved to pursue a lasting love with Esperanza.

1. By: PAZ MARQUEZ BENITEZ

2. Have you ever liked someone so much and
when the two of you did not end together,
found yourself stuck thinking about….
What could have been?

3. That is the question that has been bubbling inside
Alfredo’s head for years. Isn’t it painful when you can’t
love a person just because of some circumstances you can’t
control?
Who is he?
Today I am going to tell a story of a man who had been
invaded for years of his…..
“DEAD STAR”

4. Alfredo Salazar is a lawyer, and He is the love of the life
of Esperanza, and they have been together for 4 years and
meant to get married. Their relationship in the beginning
was full of enthusiasm, full of love and happiness..”
But like other long term relationships, their feelings for each
other changes as time goes by. Esperanza was beautiful,
elegant, reserved, and distinctly not average type of a
woman. She loves her Alfredo so much and trusted him with
her whole heart. Yet, after of four years, Alfredo changed
from being warm towards Esperanza and their relationship.
“Warm today, Cold tomorrow”

5. This changes with Esperanza and Alfredo’s relationship was noticed by
Alfredo’s sister Carmen, and then one day She asked their father Don
Julian on when the long table will be set (the wedding).
Don Julian just replied that it’s going to be next month of this year.
But Alfredo seems to be not decided yet. And they just all thought that
Carmen is not seem to be in a hurry either.
Everyone takes it for granted that he will eventually marry her,
but what if he met another woman and unknowingly felt
everything different.

6. As years, months, and days
passes by, the warm love of
Alfredo to Esperanza slowly
flickered, when he met a girl
named “JULIA SALAS.”
The two met when Alfredo’s father Don Julian decided to visit
Judge Del Valle the brother in law of JULIA SALAS.
And the visits became often.

7. Julia Salas was charming
and gleeful, which indeed no
man could ever resist her
charm and sweet smile.
He shared moments of light
but sometimes deep
conversations with her when
he and his father visited
judge Del Valle. They always
went there and since it was
his father who needed to
talk to the judge, he was
always left to Julia’s
company.

8. And the two started to feel special with each other and
enjoy each other’s company, each time that they are
together they almost forgot everything.

9. He never told JULIA that he was engaged. At first he
didn’t notice that a change in his heart was taking
form. But then he started keeping details of his
activities to his fiancé. He even often forgot to fetch
and wait for Esperanza in the church every Sunday
after the mass.
When Esperanza asked him about it,
He just lied and make up excuses that
He has to finished important things first to get things
done. And out of love Esperanza just silently accepted
his excuses and his apologies.

10. Alfredo could not admit openly to himself
that he was giving JULIA SALAS
something that was not meant and free to
give.
Deep in his heart he knows it, yet
something with Julia kept him to indulge
with what he feels, so he just followed it.
Alfredo was indeed at the top of his affection
for JULIA, it was so easy to forget up there.
Away from people and the prying eyes of
the world. The beloved woman, him
standing close to her, the shadows around,
enfolding.

11. They both stood looking into the quiet night,
both sensing unwanted intensity while she
laughed asking him, “amusement?”
“No, youth – its spirit” he said.
“Are you so old?” she asked.
And his heart desire.
Her mystery had took him of becoming a poet,
lurking in the heart of everyman.
The ancient tamarinds down the road and the
upturned stars had witnessed his emotions.
Where in the darkness, the fireflies glimmered,
and an errant breeze strayed in from
somewhere, bringing elusive, faraway sounds as
of voices in a dream.
HIS DREAMS OF JULIA SALAS.

12. The guilty feeling crept in when he found out that Julia
was about to head back to her distant hometown, he felt
blue and frightened.
He met her in the church after the Holy Thursday
Procession, although he knew that Esperanza was
already waiting for him.
He approach her and she conversed with him with
an expression that told him she finally knew.
She congratulated him and said
she will be at his wedding.
Then they parted.

13. When he visited Esperanza in her house, he overheard her
talking to another woman about infidelity and immorality,
to which he reasoned in favor of the condemned.
The statement caused an intense fury to Esperanza and she
told him that she knew.
She dared Alfredo to abandon her, along with morality and reason
and her dignity as a woman as well as her image before the society
all for the sake of his “being fair to himself”.

14. And because of his Love to Alfredo,
Esperanza forgive him..
And eventually the wedding took
place.
When the church door opens during
the wedding day, Alfredo’s thought was
still with Julia that he wishes it was
her that he will marry.
While Esperanza speak out her
mind with her self while walking
down the aisle.

15. “You’re not the same person I used to love,
Even without saying, I see the coldness on your
face,
I see the sadness in your eyes,
I remember that day, the day that your face glows
like the stars in the night…
the way you looked at her, the smile that you wear,
I know, I know that you’re so happy with Julia.
I wish everything will go back the way you loved me
before, That’s why I’m saying…I DO.”
- Esperanza

16. Alfredo has to do what is right so he indeed marry Esperanza because it is
what is right.
And they both lived a married life as what others expected them to be, as
husband and wife.
But Alfredo’s hearts’ still invaded by Julia’s memories all throughout their
married life.
And after several years, Alfredo was sent to a distant village due to legal
assignment. It bothered him so much because it was near Julia’s
hometown. But he still found himself making his way to her house despite
of stopping himself.
And He found her there, just as how and where he expected her to be.
She never married, and he still wondered how life would be if he ended up
with her.
But all was to late and he could never bring things back.

17. Upon seeing Her, He also noticed that
Julia lost something, although the fact
He didn’t know what that is, is it Her
youth, love, or luster?
And when he looked at her, He doubted
if she ever cared for him, if he has
mistaken the past light in her eyes as
manifestations of a possible romance.
But now they’re all gone. And so it was
indeed all done.

18. “ Immense sadness radiating as I watch the
bright specks of stars in the night sky, it is
normal in life to be confused with things.
I have realized that Love can be idealized
subjectively.
I push for the Love that wasn’t right, I pushed
for the Love that can move and ruin mountains
at the same time.
.

19. This two women I have ruined, I am deeply sorry.
I may have lost my journey through my
DEAD STAR,
but after all I have been redirected and at the end of
the day, just like how day ends with sunsets, we will
surely land on our destinations.
It’s time to move on and face the reality of life.
We should pursue for a love that is powerful and can
long live.

20. “JULIA” is a chapter but Esperanza is my book.
“JULIA” is my journey but Esperanza is my
destination.
“JULIA” is a STAR, but Esperanza and I built a
UNIVERSE.”
- ALFREDO SALAZAR

21. “So all these years-since when?
He had been seeing the light of the
“DEAD STAR”
Long extinguished, yet seemingly
still in their appointed places in
Heavens.
Just like his love for Julia.

22. Presented by:
DIANNE KRISTINE C. PADUA
BEED 4A
“PHILIPPINE LITERTURE
IN ENGLISH”
PROF. ABET ABLAZA
(OCTOBER 22, 2020)