Читать книгу Twin Souls - Raimon Samsó - Страница 10

Impregnated with curiosity and housing certain expectations, I visited the Sea Palms restaurant the next day.

The place, with its minimalistic décor, harbored certain balance between elegance and design. The lighting seemed warm. And the atmosphere ended up being very pleasant. The painting seemed splendid in one of the walls of the waiting room. During my wait to get a table, I ordered a martini from the bar. I was just about to interrogate a waitress over that matter when a woman approached me from the tables.

In front of me, smiling and to my utter amazement, Jodie. We saw each other again.

-Victor! What a huge surprise! I’m happy to see you again – She said hello with a kiss on the cheek and a warm smile. Her happiness seemed sincere. At least she remembered my name I thought.

We celebrated the encounter. She sat with me at the bar; she joined me with a juice, and almost didn’t let me talk. She said what she did: She administered the restaurant since about two months. She herself had redecorated it. She even had a hand on the dishes offered in the menu. The restaurant took most of her time from mid day to very late at night; but left her time to exercise in the mornings. And, the rest of the day? Always busy. Part of the time in an organization that supported groups for the psychically disabled. She never stopped a minute. And me? What did I do?

-You know, I do paintings for people who want to cover their walls – I answered – Luckily for me; there are more ugly walls in this world than paintings.

- I like people that help make this planet a more beautiful place. For my part, in a certain way, I also help to make it more beautiful.

- I think you do something more important, Jodie. Every time you help those people, you create something more beautiful. You create love in their lives.

It surprised me how I expressed it but she had a way of leading you into sensibility. Either because of my words or my look, her eyes jumped as if they had recognized me from a distant past.

- I’m glad you see it that way. I think we’re going to be good friends. Ok, Victor Bruguera, this night you are going to dine like you have never before – she assured me. And when she pronounced my last name she did it with a very funny accent.

In effect, her choice delighted me very so. Everything was delicious. During the rest of the evening Jodie alternated her duties with visits to my table. She sat three times to keep me company, three. I felt like the luckiest one of the customers. Who wouldn’t want to be in my place?

When two people don’t know each other, but wish to do so, their lives with all their secrets are a mystery that unravels little by little. That revelation is something fantastic; but when you like what you are discovering, then something happens in your heart. When a man and a woman like each other, the world around them stops, and so they begin a magic filled dance. It’s like opening a small music box in which a small couple dances inside.

During the conversation, Jodie interrupted me to tell me: Wait. Don’t tell me; let me see if I guess…. And so she closed her eyes and got it right. She loved to play the guessing game, I admit she wasn’t bad. Although I must admit my past is pretty predictable. Or maybe she had gone through something similar. Us humans, we think of ourselves as special, but deep down inside we are very much alike.

She told me about her family in Boston – wealthy, traditional – where she grew up in a somewhat rigid environment. And pointed: Somewhat is a very generous adjective. Jodie was the youngest of four sisters and also the most nonconformist. Her parents had given up on taming her -Jodie used that exact same word-. So she moved to New York to study psychology to get away from that environment.

- My profession, as a painter, was also not celebrated in my family with a big party accompanied with fireworks, but they ended up accepting it- I said.

She wrote an essay – didn’t precise the title- and in that time she participated in programs to aid people with alcohol and drug problems. The degree of commitment she took was so high that her job continued even after work hours. Sometimes, she even had to bail some drug addict in the middle of the night, or keep their mood high – through the phone – to a desperate person.

- When you help others, their problems and difficulties stop you from drowning in your own ones – everything levels itself. – said Jodie.

After proving that the chemistry between her and the Big Apple wasn’t working, she came to the west coast, where more and more people occupy themselves with their bodies and spirits, and less with things. In Palo Alto she had been to a brief strategic therapy class and with that completed her psychology major. She centered on the curing of attitude and behavior.

- I know, people here use stuff and love people. And not the other way around: love things and use people, as it often happens in many places. Is it not like that? – I pointed.

- So it is. Ok, like I was saying, later an old friend owner of three restaurants – in Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and San Diego – relegated his position. And here I am!

The flexible schedule allowed her to spend time on her concerns. She added.

-Which ones? –I wanted to know, I wished to know everything about her. Everything is everything.

-Living, I’m preoccupied with living. Seems obvious. but it’s not. And above all, I like interaction with people.

Through human contact, I recognize myself in others. Believe me, there is no better mirror than recognizing ones defects and qualities.

- Jodie, let me ask you a personal question: Is there a Mr. Wright? Little ones at home, or any of that?

-No. And a Ms. Bruguera?

-Not any more. She died two years ago.

I apologize. My face revealed a bleak landscape. I knew it since I saw it reflected in her eyes. I broke the silence, joked; forced a smile and got her to laugh. And when she did, her lips stopped resembling a heart and in reward showed her perfect teeth.

I insisted, of course, but she didn’t allow me to pay the dinner tab.

-Jodie, that is not a way to run a business - I disapproved while storing my wallet.

- In this case, what do you think it was: pleasure or business? – She smiled again. And when she did, a six scale earthquake ran through my body.

- That soon, you don’t give me any clues…

I wasn’t going to have them. Jodie, as I was to discover, was not a woman who made things easy.

Of course I didn’t tell her about my long wait weeks before in front of the art gallery. I was ashamed to recognize that my time had no value over the prospect of seeing her again. When we said goodbye at the door, I proposed we saw each other again. All I got was a sports date. At least it’s something.

We agreed to meet the next day. Early in the morning, on Ocean Avenue, to run for miles next to the beach.

-At six thirty? –she proposed.

-At six thirty –I accepted.

Even though she went to bed every night close to sunrise, because of her work, Jodie had the habit of waking up very early to do her double session workout: jogging at the beach and yogapilates at the gym. I had forgotten about the gym a long time ago.

-We should take care, much or more, the soul as we do the body, don’t you think? – Jodie asked

I smiled. We said goodbye at the restaurant door.

-Jodie, Is there really no Mr. Wright? A woman like you… -I asked.

She closed her eyes, pretended to revolve her memory as if you do with stuff in the attic, and smiled:

-If that was the case, I think I would remember it

The next day, just as we had agreed, we met at the avenue that accompanies the beach. When I got there, she was already making stretching exercises on the grass.

-Do you feel asleep? – She said while compensating it with a funny wink.

What in the hell did that question mean? It was exactly six thirty in the morning. I was on time. I wasn’t late, however she had arrived early.

- I actually got up before five to leave some things fixed before going out – I lied

-Oh! ... I see –without sounding amused.

Who was this woman whose thoughts seemed to be a couple of steps ahead of mine?This same question a kept repeating in my head the months that followed.

We began to run shoulder to shoulder, so close that I could almost hear her heartbeat doubling on mine. Jodie was very agile and of sporty constitution. Her body showed strict care. Without a doubt she had good physical form, since she kept the tone of the conversation thoughout the jog. She talked and talked without the run affecting her capacity to do both things at once.

- I sense in you a woman whose inner life is very intense. Is it not? – I asked interchanging my words with my breathing.

- I try at least. Let’s say that I like to know the «whys». And now that you mention that word, as a painter, do you know the meaning of what we call intuition? You know, that inner voice that knows it all –she asked.

- Look Jodie, I believe in the work and in the fact that no one is going to give you anything. Nothing comes wrapped up like a present in which you only need to open it. I relieve in elaborate ideas…

-You probably put a lot of effort into everything, right?

She asked surprised.

-Try being more receptive. This will help you enormously in your work. Through intuition, your personality comes in contact with your soul, and that leads you to an infinite organizing intelligence that I call God. And it does not matter what your religious beliefs are. Aren’t you happy to know that you are not alone in this world?

Then she added:

-…It’s not about some mystic thing, or a guessing ability. Think about it, how would God allow you to confront your needs without giving you the means to satisfy them? How can you be challenged with a question without being given the answer? ...

To the right of our jog, the ocean. To the left, the boulevard with its tall and thin palm trees. Beyond, the buildings are aligned with a strange mix of art-deco and radicalism styles. An infinity of runners crossed with us panting and indifferent.

- You tell me.

- Maybe intuition – Continued Jodie – is the encounter between two ideas that together acquire a complete sense, which they separately did not have. What I do know is that the solutions that the universe proposes are always better that the ones the ego disposes.

I recognized her amazing capacity to get my interest.

Because of the way she said stuff? ... Maybe it was that. What she expressed was new and strange to me. She seemed very sure of herself, and above all –and that sensation always repeated itself in her presence – gave the impression that she only exposed the tip of the iceberg. After running for about five miles, maybe six, I proposed that we took a rest. She smiled understanding the weakness of my strengths.

Jodie augmented that every person possesses their own intuitive style. She talked about archetypes, a subject I knew nothing about.

-In which one would you include yourself, Victor? – She wanted to know.

- Should I signal the correct option with a cross? Because I don’t think I have an answer to that question right now.

We continued to run side by side. It had become morning already and little by little the city awoke. In that scenery of blues, us, two insignificant people talked about matters of which I had never talked about before. Once I had heard about the West Coast being the capital of the phenomenon of waking up from a conscience to a new era – in English new age- Now that I was there… Was Jodie going to be my wakeup call? ...

- There’s always a reason – she said – for you to go through what you are living. Everything has a meaning when you learn to relate your outer experiences with your inner needs. We have a lot of questions, but also many answers. The question is to pair them correctly so that everything makes sense.

That reminded me of the e-mail message I got the evening.

-Jodie Another amazing… concidence?, by the way, where do you live?

-Near the Sea Palms restaurant where I work.

-Can’t you be more specific? Some coordinates would do, something more exact…

-Slow, Ok?

-Ok, Ok –I said somewhat disgruntled -.No details, which would be too intimate, only vague stuff… I understand.

-I’ll race you to the Pier –she yelled while she ran away at an amazing pace.

Jodie began with a sprint that literally left me nailed. I finally stopped, breathless, panting, bent on my knees, while she took off at a great speed. I tried to recover my breath while thinking about how unsettling Jodie was and the stuff she said. In every sense, that woman took my breath away.

And March went on.

Like a heartbeat.