Purgatory

by Pat Balo

When we talk about purgatory, we usually refer to that moral halfway house, where the not-so-good mingle with the not-quite-evil.

For me, purgatory was this one week in August of 2002, when I got caught between wrapping up an R-18 movie and starting on a children’s educational show.

There’s something very weird (and personality-splitting) about writing songs and poems about the different physical states of water by day and then coaxing buxom young starlet-wannabe’s to express the varying throes of carnal pleasure by night.

In fact, I had to develop two different personalities to fulfill my professional responsibilities: gentle, kindly Tito Pat (who never loses his patience) and brusque, cold Direk Pat (who barely even talked to his sexy actresses).

Finally, the week was through and the movie was finished. As I walked to my ONLY job that week, I finally felt like I was leaving purgatory and going to heaven…in a purely innocent way, of course.