e-love (Chapter 25)

25

The long Journey to the West Indies, to Butchie and to Riley...

Where are they going from here?

He was waiting for her Copa Airlines flight to arrive from Manaus, Brazil at 11:30 pm. A very late flight it was.  He had arrived that same day, in the afternoon from the USVI to Puerto Rico. He got a room for them to spend the night at and then, early next morning, get a flight back to the islands. He would finally be with her again. He sat on the floor of the arrival gate and closed his eyes, daydreaming about Christina. And so he dreamed...

She was somewhere between the Amazon Jungle and the Bermuda Triangle, she thought,  tired, anxious, nervous and uneasy as she had been traveling for hours (Brasilia to Manaus, Manaus to Puerto Rico - with stopover in Panama City - where she had lived years ago!) and soon,  arriving in San Juan and to him! The Copa flight was full, packed as always but it was nice to listen to so many languages and to be able to understand them all. On her flight from Manaus to Panama City she heard a woman ask her husband, in Spanish, to ask Christina if she could explain some of the instructions in the Customs card that was in English. They thought that she was an American! She offered help, in Spanish, and they were very grateful. They started a conversation and she told them about Brazil. They told her about Mexico. She told them that she had been to Mexico City and to Cancun, once. They were delighted. They loved Brazil. Brazil won its 3rd Soccer World Cup, in 1970 in Mexico. Yes, thanks to Pelé, Gérson, Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto and Brazil kept the Jules Rimet Cup forever. She loved talking about Brazil ... blá, blá, blá ...Then... suddenly, from the bottom of her heart she realized that Brazil was not that important anymore. It was a country, not a person. It didn't matter how much you loved your country, it would not love you back.

But ONE THING SHE KNEW (as a true Wicca or by just being a human being...with no age, nationality, religion or gender here).She was getting a new start at this point in life and she would do her best to make it work!

She thought of his blue eyes and started telling them about... Butchie. The couple listened to her and held their hands smiling while she told them about her love story and the woman's  eyes were full of tears, the couple had connected with her, they wanted to listen and to know more...and more. You see, they were on their honeymoon and in love...so, they understood her, they knew about that feeling of love inside and all over your body... When you are in love it is as if the person next to you, that loves someone too - or is loved by another - knows, feels, understands... You bond, you connect and so you love more and more...

The long hours, minutes and seconds went quicker, faster...and Christina daydreamed and wondered about Butchie and couldn't stop talking and thinking about him. She wished the plane would go faster and faster and faster or even go "warp" space in an interstellar voyage as a  light speed space ship to its final destination like Star Trek... challenging our entire understanding of space and time because of love.

Maybe it was that "Lover's Door To Whereabouts" silly thing she thought about once in the airport in Brasilia... hum... not that silly...

Airports... airplanes... Am I there yet???

San Juan, Puerto Rico

They met, they kissed and they hugged. Hearts beating. Emotions, love. Happiness. Millions of thoughts. Tiredness. Long corridors and a heavy suitcase. The room, a snack, a diet Coke. Unpacking, packing. Bathroom, shower and bed. It was time to sleep from a long day and longings to be inside the loved one's arms, feeling a familiar hand, close to a neck, a face and hair, smelling the familiar bodily scents, hands caressing you, over you and in you and then, embraced, finally rest, no words, no sounds, no thoughts, just the knowledge of being exactly where one wants to be...

...with her.

...with him.

USVI

They went to his island in a smaller plane, early next morning. It shook like hell and the pilot was a tall, fat woman, bigger than her seat but she was amazed with the color of the ocean, the deep blue Caribbean Ocean, so crystal clear blue. His car was at the airport. He took her home. As soon as she saw the house she was all goose bumps and heard the whispered words in her ears: "He lives in a castle..." It does look like a castle and it even had two towers and it was up on a hill. There was a big, round pool overlooking a bay and the blue ocean. This is paradise, she thought.  It's like heaven. Nice warm breeze, like in Brazil but quieter and different, she couldn't explain why, but different. He showed her the house (or castle, she thought) and the rooms, his bedroom, his things, his closet, his bathroom. He had emptied spaces in his closet for her. She felt loved and welcome and wanted but mostly wanted.

She heard a noise in the closet. What was that? Ohhh a dog. Is that Riley? Ohhh little doggy, come here...how cute, how sweet and how quiet he is... hum but he is full of ticks, and dirty... What's wrong with his eyes? Ohhh is he blind? Oh yes, he is. He is an old man, 14 years old. A time traveler. Like me. Like you. Hum Come here, Riley, come here little one... to my arms.

Riley bonded instantly with her. It was love at "no sight", but it was love. He could not see but he saw her with his nose! It was as if he could see the invisible tracks of her with his nose. He followed her everywhere she went and she fed him, bathed him, groomed him and cared for him just as she loved and cared for Butchie and for his needs and his wants. Slowly she became familiar with the house, the closets, the drawers, the spaces and the TV's remote control and with all those confusing American machines and instructions and all those DIY everywhere things. So very different from Brazil, Ohhh so very different. How could she explain it???

She was most impressed with the American TV. The moment you turned the TV on you heard 24/7 the same Breaking News all day long, the next day, another Breaking News all day until you died of boredom or committed suicide.

First: the all day long  Breaking News kept you in terror or fear or maybe under the invisible forces of a government control by delivering the latest breaking news (and up to the minute news), on the latest top stories, business, entertainment, politics and weather. They get you on the Weather thing: Storms and Hurricanes, the diameter eye of the hurricane, Category 2, 3, coming at 90 miles per hour, houses knocked out, floods and storms. Every day, a different Breaking News and nervous reporters on the TV screen, making you more nervous and insecure.

Second: too much news on Terror and Terrorism, the search for Osama Bin Laden, food poisoning, shooting in a local high school by teenagers, a mother that killed all her children, sexual predators, Paris Hilton this, Paris Hilton that and millions of adds on health insurances, fat food, diet pills and sleeping pills and more pills. Americans lived constantly in fear and constantly told what to do by all the TV adds shouting: "Call now"! What was wrong with the American TV?

The next day she went with him to the supermarket. While in the car, she was surprised with what she saw. Everything was SO BIG there. The cars were BIG, the houses were BIG, the people were big and fat, the supermarket was very BIG, the milk cartons were BIG, even the bananas she loved in Brazil, the Chiquita or Nanica bananas were BIG or BIGGER. Incredible. Everything in America was BIGGER or came in BIG boxes. Why was everything so big?

While she was checking the grocery list with Butchie she heard a Brazilian song she loved so much playing inside of the supermarket. She happily started to dance to the music in front of Butchie and shaking her body when two Rastafarian's came down the supermarket aisle and saw her. They said Oh Look at that Laaaaideee! while walking away but not without checking her out many times. Butchie was mad at her and told her never to do this again. America and the islands was not Brazil, you don't do this here, No, No, No Ohhh no. She shouldn't express her feelings this way, especially in the islands, with all types of people like Cruzan's, Rastafarian's and weirdos. There were still places in America where PDA (Public Display of Affection) could be considered indecent or dangerous, differently from Brazil, with all that touching, and holding and kissing!(Not that he didn't love it when she kissed him or when she hit his butt with her open hands when they were walking in the Malls in Brazil. He loved it.)

He took her to the Yacht Club to see his boat. When she saw his 42 feet Catalina, she opened her mouth wide open and again, goose bumps all over (even under her feet!), she heard whispered words in her ears again:  "He travels on a boat"...and she had to sit quickly on that so called inflatable boat, the dingy thing and held her head in her hands. She was impressed and curious. She couldn't believe it! Her Butchie... HE WAS REALLY THAT MAN THAT THE FORTUNE TELLER TOLD HER ABOUT!!! BUTCHIE WAS THE MAN THAT LIVED FAR AWAY, OCEANS AWAY...AND SHE WAS RIGHT THERE WITH HIM... SHE HADN'T NOTICED... even with all her WICCA premonitions... she hadn't noticed that he was right there in front of her all this time... She  even remembered that she had once read that Wicca's predictions were only about others not really about themselves otherwise, she thought, all those witches wouldn't have died burnt in fires; they would have escaped to another land and survived. She felt things and knew things without knowing why but with Butchie, no clue! She was smiling.

The circle of earth, wind, water, fire and love was closing in her life and she wanted no more. She was HOME yet not HOME, HOME, but HIM, HOME. And she was completely and madly in love with him. She could relax now, feel that she was in good hands, forget the concerns and worries of maybe be taken to one of those retirement homes (that she saw in West Chester, PA when she went to visit her father one day...), and all alone, having a stroke and all alone, getting older and older and all alone and scared of a distant future in a solitary knowledge of reclusion and conformity. She wanted a love, a man, a lover, a companion, a true friend that would grow older with her and walk her life and his walk of life, both together...

And...

...on that night... they made love under the Caribbean stars and the West Indies moonlight... their moon was one moon, bonding and blending in enchanting, powerful, magical forces and it was "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" when you don't know what to say anymore...(and as Mary Poppins used to say... when you were the happiest you could ever be!)



Words: 2078