Some peculiar fix, the two of us.

Palace Players I: Introducing Palace Players

Palace Players II:

If my eyes were open I would realize that the steam from my morning coffee had completely fogged up the lenses of my glasses.  Figuring out how everything happened would have been a much easier puzzle if we were both sitting at the same table this morning.  We could compare pieces.

I remembered at first the sight of her in the back of that crowded room and I remember hearing a friend of mine shout “Where are you going?” as I disappeared into the overwhelming mass of people.  I think I turned around and waved as I left them there.  They would be fine.

I remember next a chair, maybe next to the door?  It was made for one, but only I was sitting.  She laid between the leather arms and supported herself with an arm around my neck.  I remember the first words she said,  ”You found me!”  I probably thought this was strange at first, her assuming that I had been looking for her since we swam in the sea, but after a moment I realized that she was absolutely right.  I had been looking around every corner.

We found a quiet spot somewhere outside the noisy room and we sat and finally spoke like two real people would.  I told her I had never been so consumed by a person in my whole life.  She smiled as if on camera and turned her head to meet the martini glass she had raised to her lips.  This opaque yellow drink had been with her all night, but still it was so full she had to be careful sipping it.  She sighed and said, “Who have I but you, admirador?”

I laughed, “Anyone in this entire city, this entire country, would do anything to just be seen with you, to stand next to you.  I’m some American you don’t even know.  Why are you here with me?”

She reached into her purse, “Why are you not lighting my cigarette?”  She smiled and buried her head between my shoulder and my chest, holding out a Parliament in her left hand.  I pulled a lighter from my pocket and lit the cigarette, but it never met her lips.  We sat there together, her head unmoving as the smoke curled around us.  You could still hear the party from down the hall but all the music and the talking and the people yelling drink orders at bartenders had meshed into one throbbing sound that bounced off the marble walls and found our ears, all four of which were perfectly inattentive.

Now I don’t remember now how we got back to her place but I do remember sitting on the front steps and laughing and rambling on about nothing.  She asked, ”Do you miss your city when you’re here?”  I told her my city was too big.  She said her city was not big enough.  At first I thought this was funny because I felt like her city was enormous, maybe even bigger than mine.  Regardless I told her its small size was the sea’s fault, constricting expansion on one side.  She disagreed and said people wouldn’t have ever lived here at all if it weren’t for the sea.  ”Why did people ever move to Las Vegas then?” I asked.  She told me they must not have known she was in Barcelona.

I wiped the coffee fog from my glasses with the corner of my shirt and thought about her saying “Barr-te-lona.”  At some point last night she had written her number on the back of my hand and I had transcribed it to my journal and put it in my telephone as soon as I realized it wasn’t permanent.  In a funny hotel coffee shop I sat like a teenager in helpless infatuation, looking at her name on the screen of my phone and wondering if it was too soon to call.

 

 Palace Players III: Turn Out the Lights as We Planned

Palace Players IV: You’ve Got to Get Back Up Yourself

 

The sister Palace Players series, written by my dear friend H, can be read at areasonabledistance.wordpress.com.

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