Читать книгу Searching For Sophia - Andrew Saw - Страница 17
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If you’ve ever been in a busy veterinary surgery, you’ll know that bleeding gums and roundworms rarely stimulate talk of romance. I was naturally curious the next morning about what happened after Sophia and Joe disappeared into the crowd, but there was no time to launch an inquisition. As we cared for our four-footed friends, or friends with no feet at all, Joe and I managed a passing “great concert” and an “amazing night”, but that was all. It was only at the end of the day, when we’d both been wrestling a panicked ringtailed possum, that we turned to thoughts of love.
The animal had jumped onto a woman’s bed in search of the fruit she usually left on her windowsill and she’d bundled it in a large pink doona. It was still thrashing and hissing when she got to the surgery, and I can tell you unwrapping an alarmed adult possum is not light entertainment. They have powerful claws and needlesharp teeth, and by the time Joe and I had it in a cage we were grateful to have escaped without losing flesh or blood.
“I need a beer,” I said.
“Amen to that.”
We sat in my office and after a day of speculation I got straight to the point.
“So how did it go with Sophia?”
“Good, but let’s talk about it when I’ve got a bit more time.”
“Why what’s up?”
“I’ve got to get down to the concert hall.”
“But she won’t be finished for a couple of hours, surely.”
“No I’m going to the concert.”
“Again?”
He looked sheepish, or perhaps like a blushing sheep. “I’ll probably go every night.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that a little obsessive?”
“Sure it is, and what better thing is there to obsess about?”
“So you got on okay?”
He paused for a while, taking a sip of beer and obviously considering how far he was prepared to go in the time available. Finally he leaned forward, blinking through his heavy spectacles, reminding me of the possum in its cage.
“Tim, Sophia Luca is the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever met, or person actually. She’s not just about love and desire or any of those ordinary things, she’s about the spirit of creation itself.”
“Good heavens.”
“Yeah yeah, I know it sounds like bullshit, but I’m serious. She channels something elemental. You saw what she did at the concert.”
“No argument from me.”
“And it’s not just that, she’s kind and funny, and incredibly forward thinking. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with such an open mind. Nothing shocks her and everything is there to be understood.”
“Really? I thought we pissed her off at dinner.”
“No, not at all, and that’s the thing. When we left I expected we’d be talking about souls and all the rest, but it was like that conversation never happened. It just evaporated and we almost fell over ourselves talking about music and art and poetry and politics and science, for a while we even got onto economics.”
“All in the cab on the way home?”
“Hardly. She invited me in and we just kept talking almost till dawn, then she went to bed.”
“And what did you do?”
“I went too.”
There was a disconcerted pause.
“And of course that was amazing,” Joe said finally, “but only because of the mental exchange.”
“So it’s love?”
Once again the blushing sheep in spectacles sat on the other side of my desk. “Definitely.”
“And this is mutual?”
Now he was offended. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it’s been just one night.”
“Tim, you haven’t been listening.”
“So the answer is yes?”
“Of course it is, you idiot.”
“And so who is she? I mean, what has she told you about her life – has she been married, is she married, is she …”
“We don’t mess with baggage,” he said impatiently. “She didn’t talk about her past relationships and I never talk about mine. We’re just in the moment, and it’s fantastic.”
“So she’s not married?”
“It’s like she said, Tim, life is about choice. If you choose marriage, then you are married; if you choose not to be married, then you’re not.”
His words tumbled out, leaving him slightly breathless. It was a pent-up rush that he seemed grateful to release, but the flood ended as quickly as it began. “Anyway, I’ll bore you with all this some other time. Got to get to the concert.”
Given even a few seconds I might have asked for more illumination, particularly about her marital status, but he swallowed the last of his beer, plonked the bottle on my desk and swarmed out of the office. I was left with a ringing in my ears and the feeling that I really hadn’t learned anything. Although, to be honest, I doubted that Joe was learning much either.
Like anyone dazzled by rapture, he was in no condition to really know what was happening to him. The stardust algorithm was just too strong. I’d never seen him so swept away and I kept remembering Jarrah’s comment about stability. I wondered if Sophia was a little crazy and if this had sparked a similar madness in Joe.
Whatever the case, the personal pyrotechnics continued over the next week, with Joe emitting a series of muffled love explosions on the other side of my surgery door. Instinctively I wanted to know more, but had to be content with the available evidence.
