e-love (Chapter 3)

3

Rethinking your whole existence in this planet and why little "things" happen...

She lived in Brazil. In South America, in Brasilia - Distrito Federal.

He lived in the Virgin Islands. In the Caribbean, near Puerto Rico, USA.

Distance: about 4,273 miles or 6,877 kilometers.

One thing in common: (maybe) the same (side of the) Ocean.

Differences in cultures:

Nationality: American vs Brazilian.

Languages: English vs Portuguese.

Currency: Dollar vs Real.

Country status: Rich country vs developing country (so, compared to the USA, poor).

Income level: Rich people vs rich/poor people.

History: Discovered by the British vs discovered by the Portuguese.

Effectiveness: Things done faster vs things done slower, really slower.

Sizes of things and stuff: Everything is bigger vs everything is smaller.

Presidents: George Bush (totally crazy) x Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (a little bit crazy).

And many other things so...

Why would an intelligent, handsome, retired, 63-year old American man come to Brazil to meet her??? She wondered why such a man was available and thought: Well I am intelligent, handsome and available too!

She Googled him. Meu Deus! He was some kind of expert - Physics?  Pharma?  What was that?  Who was he?  He, lived in an island in the Caribbean, far from the USA. He had unique accomplishment, and this was very interesting.  His name was all over the place! Extremely intelligent, and different and - hopefully, yes, just like she was. She liked that a lot! Different! She wondered if he felt different and odd like she did most of the times and she wondered if he liked yellow, banana ice cream and animals, she wondered if he "nearly" went to prison like she had, in Texas, when she was followed by the Texas Highway Patrolmen with that noisy car behind her! (Was it near Corpus Christi?). She wondered if he ever had weird thoughts while waiting in the bank line about really robbing a bank and escaping to places like Sydney, Australia or to Juneau, Alaska...

She needed to know more about him and she needed him to know more about her. After all those messages and phone calls she was in love. She understood why he was interested in her but, come all the way to Brazil? Well, why not? She started sending information about Brazil to him and started telling him about her life, in 5 parts... (Ah dear reader, her life is a total of 5 plus 6 years, FIFTY- SIX...not short nor brief but long, exciting and different), so, she would do it as briefly as possible but her life was one of the most interesting ones she'd ever heard about and he would be part of it one day. He had to know all these things because to really understand her he needed to know everything about:

...The Second World War, US Submarines in Brazil in 1943 and Gloria, Henry and Bruce in Philadelphia in 1950;

...Recife, Mamãe Lurdinha, Boa Viagem Beach and Vovô Vicente Gouveia;

...Colmar, sharks, the African Scorpion, baboons with red butts, blue poison frogs, Emmanu and Springfield Convent boarding school, the car "incident" between Zululand and Swaziland, crossing the Red Sea on a cruise ship, the camel's pee, Luxor and the Great Pyramids, Italy, France and the Chrysler;

...Spain, Manolita and Uruguay, playing dolls with Gabriela... the Batalha de las Piedras, Alexandre and her first kiss;

...Panama, the Canal Zone and the twin brothers in Diablo Heights junior high school, Ferdinand Porras y Porras, swimming medals, Barbie dolls, the death, the burial and the trunks;

...Rio de Janeiro, Bennett School, her best friend Angela Gomes Jorge and ex-boyfriend Thomas Hasslacher, Christina Sichel and her very special friends that she needed to find again such as Pamela (or Panela... as she called her lovingly)Huber, Kathia Braga Leao and Teresa Luisa Frossard (where were they in this whole wide world? Ah she needed them back to her life...!);

...Running away to Israel, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, kibbutzim's, the Orthodox Greek Priest, Shmuel, the Dead Sea and Jesus' trail, Jack Baron;

...Lausanne, Berne and Genève, the lesbian nun (Souer Christine) in Dortoire Brun in the Pennsionatt International de La Chassotte pour le jeunne filles in Fribourg, learning how to smoke Kent and hiding it with Johnson's baby powder, skiing in Lac Noir, Brigitte Bardot and Gunther Sachs' house and the Russian prince Zourab Tchekotova, the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps with its ice glacier rooms and the stolen kiss;

...Agnes Trouvé in Poitiers and castles in Le Havre, France with Jurandyr and Luiza Barroso, Nuria and the Canary Islands, El Dias de los Reyes and Hugo;

...Making friends, losing friends; never having a real home and family only rooms in boarding schools, learning how to adapt and live in Brazil and schools and more boarding schools... again;

...Bobby, the surfer boyfriend in Arpoador beach in Rio; her mother's boyfriends and husbands, her mother's "business transaction" involving her as part of the deal, the diamond ring that was given and then, taken away;

... Enio, Dennis, her married life in São Paulo and Mackenzie University;

...Claudia and Sylvia;

...The 9/11 and another death and burial;

... Her sorrows, her joys, her dreams, her wrongdoings, her good deeds, her losses and her grieves, marriage and divorce, him;

...The Texas "Problem"; Hawaii, Cancun, New York City, Niagara Falls, Toronto, London and Vancouver, Richland and Yellowstone, London in Canada, Los Angeles, Venice Beach with  the body piercing and the tattoo, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and the eagle flying over her head, Niagara Falls, Key West,  Monte Rey and Alcatraz;

...What she remembered from living in Colorado Springs and what they did to the black people in buses, swimming pools and water fountains;

...All the things she learned, did and didn't do, all the books she read, the people she met, the films she watched, her thoughts, her secrets and the  night she stood with a lugger in her hand at 3 am while looking at a table full of unpaid bills;

...Her disillusionment, her loves, her boyfriends, her decisions and giving up on her mother forever no matter what -  for her own sanity, her mistakes, her battles and victories;

...Her happiness, her sadness, her life, her Johnnie Walker Walk, her Walk of Life, her Keep Walking her Way of Life... Christina's Way.

He needed to know all this. All this was... Christina.



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