Читать книгу Twin Souls - Raimon Samsó - Страница 14

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 too, but let’s not get used to it, ok? I mean to argue -she said.

We went in opposite directions. I ran back to the apartment and while I took a shower, I remembered Jodie’s expression when she came to help me. In some way I know she felt affection for me, I could perceive it.

In the afternoon Jodie went with me to the hospital. Lorena was reading the book, Jodie’s book, and I must say she loved it.

-Lorena, this is Jodie, a good friend. And author of the book I lent you.

They greeted affectionately. They talked about the book and exchanged kind comments. Lorena benefited from the unusual opportunity of having in front of her the author, to ask some questions.

-You know, Lorena -I interrupted- she has taught me there is a law that says that when you change your will and discipline with the confidence in getting what you set your mind to, sooner or later it happens, or something better happens. Isn’t that true?- I turned towards Jodie and added: «quoting the author Paulo Coelho: When a person really wishes something, the whole universe conspires to make that dream happen». So, Lorena, I want to see you completely recovered soon.

Jodie continued:

-Well, I see you know it by heart. Let’s see how it continued: …as a consequence, when you get its collaboration, you are undefeatable…

I continued:

-…Even the impossible is possible then…

And her:

-…A miracle, remember, is a minuscule occurrence that produces spectacular results. The miracle isn’t the healing, but the thought that made it possible…

-Look at that couple! -Lorena exclaimed finally interrupting us-. Your like those TV newsreaders. Did you practice it?

We laughed at that situation.

A nurse came to pick her up and take her in a wheel chair to her rehabilitation session. He was a young man able to deactivate a low spirit with his crushing sympathy. It was obvious that between them was a complicity that multiplied both of their jobs. That human connection is something that doesn’t figure in a medical prescription, but it’s fundamental for a good treatment.

-Remember, doctors will do their part, but you must do yours -pointed Jodie.

-I will visualize for my recuperation… -Lorena said good bye while a nurse took her.

We saw how they went away in the hallway, racing another patient.

-What do you think, Jodie?

-I’m sure she’ll make it. That young girl sweats life through her pores.

The evening conference took place at the Zen center in Westwood Avenue. In that area, the city climbs up the hills, while under, in the flat, an immense light plantation, like fallen stars, formed a human constellation, with its dreams and hopes tilting. Westwood is an avenue filled with interesting libraries- first editions and weird book- that I promised myself to visit.

The exponent was a woman with insignificant aspect, but with an enormous energy and vitality. She said some interesting things, for example she explained concepts -to me unknown by then -of Feng Shui. She pointed that Tao’s philosophy call Yin and Yang two complementary principles. Together they constitute a totality: what is and what will be. The first one is identified with feminine aspects, and the second one with the masculine. The feminine is receptive and intuitive and the masculine is active and logical. She said something kind of like our masculine part pursues our dreams, while the feminine part attracts them. And for that reason they are complementary and must be equaled.

I looked at Jodie. I believe that is a good description of both of us, I mean: she was Yin and I was Yang.

-I know what you are thinking -mumbled Jodie in a low voice.

-I know you know. Some day you should tell me how you manage to do that.

-Do what? -she asked.

-Come on Jodie, you know what: read the mind.

-Shhhhh! -someone behind us made us shush.

The lecturer continued talking about kids, that in the way they have not yet been contaminated by so many and so many grown up prejudices, they have an amazing receptivity, creativity and intuition. We were all like them one day. The thing is: when did we leave those abilities on the side? Could we get them back?

-Remind me to talk about it later -said Jodie to my ear.

Jodie, at my side, took numerous notes about the explanations from the lecturer. It drew my attention the fact that she used eyeglasses to write. And I must say they looked amazingly well on her: it made her even more interesting.

Once the conference ended, Jodie greeted several assistants. In the street, she confessed it was frequent to find the same people in the new age events in the city. Using her own words: it is like a big family that grows and grows. An important detail: the fact that the great majority were women. I believe that they, now a days, are way more compromised in their personal development, leading a great scale change.

-And tell me about your book… is it true you wrote it? Is it for real?

-Look you little bug, I am not answering you. It is not the place to discuss, ok? …

Some people known by Jodie came to us to say hi. I presented myself as a painter, and as an echo commented the conference:

-Ah! A painter! It is curious but our culture lacks of the intuitive and yet rewards those who come out with the use of those capacities: the artists. For their art they are paid real fortunes.

-Well, that is not my case for the moment… sadly -I joked-. But you, the women, lead the intuitive capacity. Why do you think that is?

-Feminine intuition benefited from an archaic society model and ended in the woman compensating her emotional intelligence men’s strength -intervened a young redheaded woman with nacre eyeglasses.

-And maternity -added Jodie- that made woman guess her baby’s needs when they couldn’t express them.

-I believe that above these reasons -intervened a woman beside her-, is the permissiveness of women to express their emotions and feelings. On the other hand men…

That night, once I went to bed, I couldn’t avoid thinking about everything I had heard. I watched the alarm clock several times… and before falling asleep, I turned around on my bed. I was stunned. In the last weeks everything that constituted my world was revolved because of that avalanche of new ideas for me. I had to piece things together. But, where to start? I must admit that everything had some kind of sense, but I cannot say I completely understood it yet. I know, but I don’t know how, that what I had heard in the conference, what I read in the book, and what Jodie explained was true. I intuited it to be real, and resulted familiar. It is a similar feeling to when you check an old movie that little by little you remember. And yet, that is how I felt it to be happening.

I was Yang. And Jodie, Yin. That is how far I understood. As a matter of fact, nothing could define our role in the world in a better way. Maybe this symbolized that internal feminine energy with which I so much needed to be connected. I recognized in Jodie my feminine aspect, my Yin principle. We were a complete circle, closed, like the Yin Yang symbol. That circle, in black and white, in which two forms look for each other and complement one another.

I grabbed my pillow and hid my face in it. I tried to clear my ideas. In the silence of the room I could only hear my alarm clock’s tic-toc and the noise of my thoughts cutting through my room’s darkness.