I vie for your short spanned attention to my meek transliteration of Mr.Piroshky’s undying love for Ms.Romanov.
As we stop for our umpteenth water break (*don’t judge the poor guy! he’s just an old penguin who cannot keep up with this world’s obsession with speed. If I were to say anything, I know how he’d go about his ever rejuvenating charisma, so I let the aging self-proclaimed* romantic be at peace. His dusty eye patch flutters to the parched afternoon’s breeze as he looks into the distance with a glitter in his eye. I know him too well to know that he would either break into an abrupt song anytime now replete with his rusty guitar performance or reminisce his ‘alma’ . The love he so colorfully paints for her made a stranger like me fall in love with my mental image of Ms.Romanov.
“Mi alma, mi amor” he loudly proclaims with gusto awakening ‘her’ but as always his voice trails with the heaviness of longing.
“Being with her felt like watching a sunset over the mountains in slow motion while sitting at the edge of my favorite cliff back home”
forever the heart throb
Lo siento, let me be more…earthy he says (*snapping his fingers). He smiled cheekily, for I guess he found the string end of that memory.
”It’s like when Esé picks up that perfect churro coated with the right amount of sugar dust just for you (*kisses his fingers). Trying to explain to my confused face while rolling his eyes, he asks…Muchacho, what would you die to eat right now!?”
My desert smoked lips come alive at the mention of food and i yelp “Biryani”. Confusion sometimes is a cursed coin passed on to one another; but he thought no more than a second before finishing off with this.
”For the uninitiated like you, it's like eating Biryani after years of waiting” Comprende?
I was silent for a couple of moments letting that picture dance in my head but I guess he was disappointed with my non-impressive reaction, so he continued.
“Out of all the million possible occurrences and against unfathomable odds, what are the chances that you’d meet someone who you've never known your entire life and in just a few handful seasons, that relationship stretches your soul literally between the extremes of joy and sadness to the extent of breaking you. And all you do is willingly give yourself away with a stupid sunny smile?”
The answer's simply ONE, he wailed in joy pointing his non-existent finger at me.
Amused at my open mouthed smile where I was watching him in awe…
“Muchacho, you could strike me down as any other romantic fool who falls in love and you have every right to. But to my li’l cold heart, this was the perfect potion of feeling extremely vulnerable, scared and fearless that I had ever felt in my life. Do you ever wake up to find yourself so happy you could literally stab someone with your smile? (*he winks) and that feeling where the world might explode (*he makes the sound of an explosion with his wrinkly puffed up cheeks) but you knew you'd survive somehow? I did...every puny second of being with mi alma ! Simply put, being in love with her felt like falling with careless abandon into a warm pile of clothes over and over”
I felt the scent of Tide overpower my senses as I remembered the last time I threw myself that way and I snickered at the idea. Mr.Piroshky spun a web with words just as he did with the noodle strings on his rusty ol’ friend. He never lured anyone in yet you’d find yourself caught in his warm web of decadence. He seldom spoke without breaking into song, but when he did…it made you dive into a whiplash pool of your favorite memories and dreams where you only had happiness for company. Quoting his own words, it was living through your “la mayor aventura”
The air around suddenly and wistfully turned moody adding to the grimness in his voice…
”As my personal dom set on the horizon abruptly one evening, did I say set? I meant more on the lines of imploded on a beautiful evening, I was left alone in the dark to find my way home. (*he bobs his head back and forth). It didn't end there. I realized the suitcase of demons I had stowed away unconsciously, opened up in the aftermath. And clicking his tongue, he pines…”Oh Muchacho, you should have met me then. I don't know how anyone even spent more than five minutes with that version of me, el grande Piroshky reduced to a soggy gummy bear! In simple words, I was dragged into hell”, tch..tch..
He takes a deep breath and begins to collect himself. The deep reds in the skies reflect the agony in his voice whilst we sit there in utter silence and I drift away into my own memory cinema.
Times when you lose your bearings are when the greatest lessons hidden all along reveal themselves, for they waited like aging guardians awaiting that moment. Mr.Piorshky’s wave of blues woke the ocean inside me. I remember learning to fall in and out of trust with my own feelings and thoughts; it was essentially rediscovering yourself right from the atomic level. It was not always refreshing like drinking ice cold lemonade on an indian summer evening, it sometimes felt more on the lines of being scalped like a dry coconut. It was butt naked, dirty and left a sour taste in the mouth and pain in the gut. I felt like Dark Knight after Bane was done with him, only not so suave and sexy (*who am I kidding!?).
Not a moon passed by when I had wished none of that tragedy happened but Gandalf’s wisdom to Frodo put me back on the right path…“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us”. so what we can rather wish for is the wisdom to react better so you can salvage the broken pieces before they fade away into the great nothingness.
While Mr.Piroshky and I wait for the sun to dip down that shimmering horizon, each lost to his own melody of thoughts; I see him tear up but remain as stoic as a greek statue. His wondrous gaze never left the beautiful blot in the sky for he sought ‘her’ with all that was remaining of him those few precious magical moments, every chance he got.
Behind those blue eyes, I see not pain but the promise of a lifetime. For it is his anchor, armor and arsenal; come any storm.