CHAPTER 20
ANOTHER PAGE HAS BEEN TURNED. WOO HOO.
PITY FOR THIS DAY…
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WROTE ON THE BACK OF MY NOTEBOOK…
A BIT LIKE A SWAN SONG...
N.B.: for Nathalie B and Nota Bene
My son met his very first serious girlfriend the next Sunday, precisely after I had wished for him to find someone to love, somewhere on my way back from a visit to Québec City…
She too has special “talents” (and she plays the piano on top of it!).
And my son doesn’t give a damn about the colour of her hair…
Later, he confided in me that he knew at that moment that he had met the woman of his dreams…
They live together now and plan to get married this summer.
She describes herself as a witch by religion…
And her grand-parents had to travel a long way to end up here…
Oh, and more importantly: she has RED HAIR!
I finally took my car to the mechanic today to get him to fix my air con. A tissue got sucked in the system which had blocked the air filter apparently…
When came time to pay, while we waited for the terminal to connect, I told the lady at the desk that she had a nice neckless (a cross with an encrusted diamond). Then we talked about the weather (of course!). She commented of the fact that we were not observing the weather correctly.
She added that her parents once travelled to Barbados…
Where they have a famous saying: “in your country, your continuously run after time while here, it’s time who runs after us”.
Then on Wednesday, when I drove my mom to her specialist in order to get an update on her cancer (I go the feeling that I should call ahead to confirm but, once again, I failed to listen to my inner voice…). When we arrived at the clinic, we found out that the doctor was still on holidays…
I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We decided to have lunch in a restaurant nearby to discuss of the subject of my rape in Mexico… She confided in me that it nearly happened to her too:
“I didn’t let him get close to me, I had my virtue to protect, my virginity…”.
It was like this back then. “I kicked, punched, bit until I could free myself and ran away as quickly as I could!”. Girls weren’t dressed down like they are today, we left a lot more to the imagination…
That reminds me of the one time I called my favourite radio talk-shows (hosted by Paul Arcand, a highly respected journalist and the leader by far in the genre and the ratings leader…) where the subject today’s kids dressing too sexy… I dare to contradict them by saying that with every generation there was a tendency for kids to stretch the limits dictated for their generation. We might think that we go further today but only if we compare ourselves with the previous generations. Yet, every generation has probably complained about it as the limits of decency get stretched further and further as our species evolves, or more precisely changes (as many a generation has probably complained about the latest generation being a lesser version of theirs invariably…).
Now, in retrospect and having gained in experience and wisdom, I can humbly say that many of his arguments made a lot of sense. Somehow, I know he remembers our conversation. So, in order to ask for his forgiveness for challenging his almighty wisdom, I have a very special video I must show him one day…
After all, as they like to repeat it in their advertising, he is the men WHO ASKS THE REAL QUESTIONS!
I should have known that, despite the fact that I could have defended my opinion with more fervour, like many a woman, I was somehow conditioned to believe that this was the way things were and that was it… Believe that if I just closed my eyes, things would just disappear as per enchantment as if they never happened…
***
On my way back home that afternoon, I turned on the radio and selected a station at random… A song reminding me of my first overseas trip (with my family in Jamaica???) so I turned up the volume started to sing along, with my “ghostly” father at my sight, my pink mobile securely locked in my designer handbag which was offered to me by my loving husband during our Paris odyssey last summer which was itself sitting quietly on the back seat….
« Don’t worry Be Happy! From Bob Marley ».
While I was writing these lines, my pink mobile phone just went beep…
Someone’s SMS which made me think…
That my dad in heaven woke me up (once again) this morning… (at least you waited until 5 am and not 2am, thanks dad!).
To be continued…