good friend is who is capable of staying silent with you without feeling uncomfortable about it. My problems? That was the least important thing at this moment. Difficulties come and go, but those who share them set an infinite friendship.
-How’s Lorena?
-Good, good, better each day. All of the tests are positive, so she’ll soon be home. I’ll go get some beers -said Sam.
We drank on the stairs. I don’t know for how long we remained like this, silent, while we contemplated our own fears.
-One more Mister Victor?
-Why not? One more, Sam.
An instant after Sam went up to get another couple of beers a taxi stopped in front of the building. Jodie rolled her window down and without getting out she said:
-Forgive me, I’m sorry. Come on, forgive meeee…. -She begged looking at me with her sweet eyes, I was not able to resist. I admit she had never looked so beautiful to me.
The taxi driver looked at us, one at a time, and he kept staring at me waiting for the outcome. Finally I did a head gesture for her to come out of the taxi.
-Some years ago, the psychologist association would have come over me for that book, which is why I used a pseudonym. Now things are different, these ideas are tolerated. But by then…
A silence.
-I’m really sorry -apologized Jodie.
-No, I’m sorry. No more secrets?
-Never again. I give you my word.
-At least not until the next millennium, by then I guess I might have forgiven you already.
Two smiles.
Jodie sat on the stairway next to me, agitated my hair, kissed my forehead, and layed her arm around me. She told me all about it, or almost everything. Her fascination of writing from years back… It shows me parts of myself that are unknown to me, she confessed. And added:
-Everyhing I’ve written has taught me. I write because I wish to understand; and when I do it, I learn. I write because I wish to share certain ideas which copyrights belong to humanity. But well, I know, I know. I barely have let you talk all night. Tell me about you, your childhood. I promise to shut up and not to interrupt.
Meanwhile Sam came with the beers. He apologized, but I didn’t let him leave, and begged him to sit with us. I introduced them, and then I told them about myself:
-My parents came to Barcelona in the year fifty nine…
Chapter Nine
The phone sounded and sounded until it woke me up. I picked up. I don’t know why I did it, but I picked up. At the other side Jodie’s voice said good morning. I looked at the clock: six in the morning.
Sometimes I wake up without knowing where I am, and it takes me a second to recognize my room. That short eternity creates a chaos in me which attacks me in the beginning of the morning, as if I woke up stumbling.
That morning I had the same feeling. I was so stunned by sleep that I was unable to find the right words to answer.
-Come on, Victor, I won’t hold all the rudeness you where thinking against you. Shake the sleepiness off behind your ears, throw some water in your face and put your jogging suit on. I’ll wait for you by the ocean on Palisades Avenue in twenty minutes. We’ll see what you’re made of.
She hung up without giving me time to react. Then I thought about not showing up. But since Jodie had dynamited my rest, I’ll take advantage of the situation to shake her in her territory. I decided to show up and jumble her through an energy dose strategy and rival her energy until it wears out.
On time, she awaited me at the agreed place. And for the first time I didn’t greet her with a kiss in the check as I usually did. Instead I said a hermetic:
-Are you ready?
-Eh! What are those manners? May I know what bug has stung you?
-Let’s not talk, let’s run.
I did a progressive sprint Jodie had to level off in order to not stay behind. We didn’t talk the long half hour that our run lasted all through Palisades Park, a route with spectacular views, next to the Pacific coast. Every now and then, she looked at me from the bottom of her eye with a certain anger expression. The bigger the disapproval, the faster the speed. In a gradual way, I increased the pace, to which Jodie responded once again by getting ahead. We ran four miles to the rhythm to a hundred meters straight, shooting off. And the unavoidable happened: she won. My naive strategies didn’t work at all. She was there more than fifty meters ahead of me, and before she distanced up to humiliation, I threw myself on the ground faking an ankle sprain. Jodie stopped immediately to help me.
-Victor, Victor! Are you hurt? I’m sorry, I feel so responsible for this…
It seemed her heart fell apart in one and two pieces. I was unable to continue with the joke, although I was unable to hold the laughter in. Jodie, surprised at first, and then infuriated, sat up and gave me a «straight one» to the chin that ended my laughter. I had to go after her, grab her arm for her to listen, and beg her.
-I am sorry Jodie, forgive me. Let’s say I didn’t want you to be away not even for a moment -I joked-. I am really sorry…
-Listen you little bug…
Finally! When she said that word, everything was in order. For this one I had amnesty. We still walked for some kilometers in the park to catch our breath. Then we went back at fast pace.
-Victor, I wanted to tell you that for this evening there is organized a conference on Feng Shui principles. I’d like you to come with me, if you would like to. You see, I picked up a brochure at the Bodhi Tree library, and it seemed interesting.
-Bodhi Tree, oh! I know, that place you go to with the sole intention of drinking a free cup of coffee, right? -I pretended to strike back, referring to the infusions they serve customers.
-I see you don’t know how to lose. Be careful with that. With that bad temper you lose not once, but twice: as an athlete and as a person -said Jodie arching an eyebrow.
She was right, as always. When was I going to learn…?
-Come on, I think we need a good shower. Slight athlete you are. What am I to do with you, Victor?
She tapped caringly my arm once, twice and three times.
-Jodie, before going to the conference, I’d like you to come with me to Mercy Hospital. I believe you could comfort Lorena. I don’t know, I think you could comfort her in this moment. Ok? Would you do it for me? I could pick you up at five -I suggested.
-Sure! Victor! Now, give me one of those kisses you saved when you came here.
-Fiends? -I gave her two kisses.
-Friends again -she held out her hand, and gave me a smile.
-I like making up with you.
-Me
