Monday, June 06, 2011

two of them, so much alike

A bit difficult to remember, this one. What was it. There was the long trek to the fancy house where I was due to do a short, half an hour only, lesson for some bratty kid. Hardly worth the while. And looking for a place to park amidst the streets lined with trees, parking spaces difficult to make out as they were raised, part of the pavement and hidden beyond the next clump of trees.

Then I was in the house but it wasn't a lesson any more and my sister was there; she gave me some warning not to go to the door, but it was impossible as we were in an open space, the front door was wide open or absent. She said 'there'll be shooting there across the road', don't put yourself in the cross-fire'. Perhaps she meant they were going to shoot at me if I got any closer or stuck out, I thought. There had to be a way out of there. My sister was gone. I slunk and slid very low and suddenly I was on the street, sneaking by the parked cars with my head low. There wasn’t any shooting, at least. Then I was on a bus. I needed to go to my house and that wasn't very far. I should have checked the bus number. Wait, buses in Caracas don't have numbers, just the origin and designation as the name of the line. We're going the right way, though, trundling along Calle El Lago.

Can't remember getting to the house, although I know every detail of the bus stop, the two corner shops, one with political graffiti on the wall in changing forms but always the same since the '60s. My house has changed so much but it feels the same. My room has grown. B' was there. There were two of them, one as she is now and a younger one, more like the one I'd known back then in the mist of time, when she would never have considered falling in love with me. Except neither of them looked very much like her. And both wanted to stay. It was time to go to bed and each of them in turned said something about that. I had a problem. Each of them was showing the most bitter jealousy towards the other. I thought there'd been a large double-sized bed in my room but there were only two narrow single beds. Even more of a problem…. how was I going to sort this out without scenes and shouts. I tried to put the beds together but they were so heavy. The two 'B''s were standing there, arms folded. Maybe I should decide it was a dream and I should wake up soon, couldn't see any other way out of this.