Eros S. Atalia

Intoy has had the hots for Doray since they were kids in Kalye Marino, Cavite City, formerly the American Naval Base in Sangley Point. Both marginalized as the long-lasting effect of American abandonment of the said base, Intoy has become Kalye Marino’s best “tahong” caretaker-with-no-angst-about-poverty, while Doray a cheap prostitute-with-no-guilt, tending to her siblings’ needs. Intoy strives to have his own cages of “tahong” so he can have Doray, not for just a night of quickie sex, but forever. But what will he do to when she offers to drop by his hovel-on-stilts to quench his passion, but before it happens Nature has chosen to play a joke on his tahong cage? Will it be goodbye to his tahong business or to his damsel-in-distress and ultimately to Kalye Marino? From Eros S. Atalia’s 2001 Palanca Grand Prize-winning Short Story, Intoy Syokoy ng Kalye Marino is a love tale minus the obligatory romantic sentiments.

College senior Intoy (Edgar Allan Guzman) is unwittingly fallen into a friend-with-benefits situation with his mysterious classmate Jenny (Mercedes Cabral). Jenny has a reputation for being promiscuous, and Intoy plays aloof to hide the fact that he’s fallen in love with her. Slowly, Jenny opens up to him as well, revealing the vulnerable center to her seemingly impervious façade. But poor, confused Intoy isn’t really equipped to deal with the feelings involved.