"I Love You."
That was way too close.
A speeding car zoomed past barely inches of this girl. Buenos Aires could be hectic and fast but this was ridiculous. I thought she was maybe insane dodging cars and waving her arms like a fool. There are plenty of those in the big cities, anywhere. Crazies doing what they do. Hardly anyone cares, busy thinking about dinner tonight or any such trivialities. This girl wasn't thinking about dinner, that's for sure.
Many more cars swerved around her, calling her names, and pumping their fists in the air with supreme indignation.
Then I saw it.
A wounded and panicked seagull struggling to take flight was just there, lying in the middle of the widest avenue in the world. Someone's idea of better metropolitan traffic. And her.
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When I realized what she was up to, knowing that my day couldn't get worse, I jumped into that metal avalanche as well. I've never been the hero type just like I never read the comics about them. Not impressed, I guess.
By the time I got to her, dying in my head a million times, I noticed a huge delivery truck stopped right behind them, sheltering both her and the bird from the incoming moto-beasts. The situation was beyond chaotic already but when the truck blocked traffic, all hell broke loose. Some were indeed going to be late for dinner.
There was a funny moment when the driver of the truck, without saying a word or coming down from his metallic fortress, just threw a small blanket out his window. Then he rolled it back up. I laughed inside. That was exactly what we needed. I helped her carefully wrap the seagull as we picked her up in the middle of all the madness of unnecessary hysteria. All three now, zig-zagged back into the world and its freckle safety. And we made it in one piece.
My heart was beating like crazy and I told her so, in short staccato breaths. One of the best feelings in my life happened right at that moment when she placed her hand on my chest to feel it. Out of breath, carrying a now sleeping and exhausted bird in my arms, I felt as if an angel just blessed me with that touch.
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"Terciopelo" stands for velvet in Spanish. Percie for short, became her nickname and it still is.
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No one ever inspired me to write poetry the way this girl did. It was magical, almost as if everything was encompassed inside a dream. I was floating around with my senses spinning in all different kinds of ways. Science today would qualify that as an experience dictated by one's own endocrine system. In those days, to me, that was a daze. Yes, one can say I was smitten. I couldn't explain the feeling but it certainly was extraordinary. First love, I can confirm it now. Undoubtedly.
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We went to the same Secundaria (preparatory) school. She was 15 and I was 15 & 1/2. What did I learn? How COULD I learn? She was the only reason I went there. The only reason I ate, and why I got up in the morning. My only reason for existing, I was sure of it back then. And still don't doubt it now.
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A dangerous place to be in your mind. No one ever should be elevated to that level, regardless of the affection, irrespective of the heart.
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So, we shared many common interests together. We signed up for off-the-grid classes too, on purpose... We excelled in our grades because we worked on our subjects together.
Come to think of it now, that's the way it should be for kids in schools today. Obligatory falling in love to make studies better, therefore learning, simpler.
But everything was easy when I did it with her, nothing ever got stale or boring. We did great in our school because our love was so intense, we were open to life itself and everything it had to offer. We found simple things that otherwise we never would have paid attention to, completely fascinating. We were infinite, limitless, universal.
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It was almost as if we were being born again. We were young, but we were acting even younger. We laughed about the silliest things as we were alive with this humor and even better disposition. At times, we had to stop doing what we were doing long enough to dry our eyes from the tears of laughter. Then we intensely looked at each other's eyes; not a word was spoken and the kiss materialized like IT was waiting for it. An entity of its own. Mr. Kiss, ladies, and gentlemen. Turn down the lights.
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Unforgettable moments that at one point we concluded no one else in the world had. Wow! What an eureka moment! Once we identified deeply with that thought, it was like we won a luminary prize. We didn't know what to call it, but we recognized it was special in many more ways than one. Then it came to her: "Chemistry!, she bellowed...what else!?" and we busted up laughing. "We should win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, babe! Tell me I'm wrong!" Again, we blasted together in laughter.
Sometimes, people thought we were crazy or on drugs. In a different kind of way, we were. Oxytocin.
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There was nothing we didn't enjoy doing together. Playing, laughing, singing, teasing, kissing. Rinse and repeat.
Even cleaning up was fun. Shopping for groceries together was a riot. Buying clothes in the Good Will was a show for the people at the store. "Ahh! Teenagers in love!"-- I heard them say.
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Yes, we were, indeed.
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The first hint of trouble began when she said she can no longer stand her parents. That she wanted out.
Dad was the worst culprit since he was an extremely controlling type. Wrong thing to try with Percie. She could accept anyone by the way they were, but she couldn't stand THAT.
The cardinal sin in her book and an insurmountable hurdle. She had already set her coordinates to another province, far away, so she couldn't be found.
Then came the lowering of her delicate face.
Tears had already formed. She had this look she extracted from deep within that could tame a lion or raise the dead and good luck to whoever may be the recipient. Under the look of those eyes a 'No' is out of the equation.
And she knew it. Like I knew it.
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I had to work fast and devise a plan to change her mind and avoid a calamity.
But how?
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The inevitable question came not a minute too late. With her beautiful brown caramel eyes, she asked in a barely audible whisper, "Would you come with me?"
And I saw my life passing through my entire being in an instant.
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Basically, she became a runaway with a chaperone. No matter how many times I tried or what I did to persuade her to change her mind, once she felt I wasn't gonna leave her alone, her mind was set. She was hitting the road, away from Mom and Dad.
I thought I was impulsive. But, in retrospect, I realize now she's been planning this for a while. All she needed was my support and my security.
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"Throw everything in a sack, don't forget your documents and all the money you got. We need to hurry!" She said with a mixture of excitement, bewilderment, and anxiety. One thing was undeniable; we were surrounded by a sense of awe. And magic was in the air. It was the first time traveling nowhere together. We had no idea where we were going!
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"What money?", I asked. "That money? You said never to touch that until we had enough for the flat!"
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"Yes, well, we'll get it back. This is more important, we have to use it now. I can't take it anymore." She said, starting to cry.
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One thing about Babe is that she hardly ever cried but when she did, she cried quietly, almost privately. I loved that about her.
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We were officially runaways with notice. Meaning we left notes in our parents' kitchens telling them what we were up to. And we hit the road.
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We figured we better go to a different country. It will be easier to get away from the security people. The problem was that we got stopped as soon as we crossed the harbor into Uruguay, and they asked for papers. The question was what are you doing here and how old are you? We told them. They asked us if we were terrorists fighting against the government or subversives. We said no, of course not, we are cool kids having a vacation because it's spring break. They didn't believe us but the questions started, they got louder and louder and the tone became somewhat threatening.
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These were military guys of the period of military juntas in Uruguay and Argentina. We figured we had to roll with the punches and answered the questions the best way we could. They kept that up all night, All of the next day, and through that evening. We were beginning to get scared. Then they asked for our parents' telephone numbers. That was a problem, because we figured if we gave it to them obviously they would call, and then our little adventure would be over. With heavy repercussions,. But we have to give it to them as there is no way out. We decided to tell the truth and disclose the fact that we are, in fact, runaways.
They laughed and laughed and laughed. At least that reduced the tension a little bit and the mood became lighter.
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Finally, it looked like they weren't going to kill us after all. That was a positive note, we thought. So what could we do now or rather what will THEY do now? Will they call our parents or would they just make us disappear somewhere in the mountains like they've done to so many others so many times? They asked us the same questions over and over again. They took us to two different rooms and asked the same questions separately and they'd better be the same answers otherwise who knows what they would have done.
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The military juntas were brutal during a dark period of South American history. They were horrible entities in power during the 70s in these countries, which are neighbors, Argentina and Uruguay. But Brazil and Chile were not doing any better nor did the rest of Latin America. The juntas were effectively everywhere.
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"Ok. You're fine. I know because that cat doesn't like anyone... That's how I know you're not subversives.
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I had short hair then which could have been a saving grace too. They associated long hair with intellectual activity and student rebel groups.
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I had neither of the three.
And I was with her, who the cat liked.
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"Baby, the big blonde one scares me, he looks at me like he wants to have me for lunch," Percie said.
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"If he kills you, make sure at least you bite him first. At least that way, they will get your teeth imprinted. That's good evidence!" I joked.
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She didn't appreciate it and instead gave me a snarky look.
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But we still laughed about it three seconds later.
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We spent a day and a half being interrogated like criminals in this police station. When they finally had enough of playing with us, they determined we were no threat to anyone but ourselves.
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And they didn't even care we were runaways. Or that we were minors. They just let us go.
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"Out!!!" The head honcho cop shouted. "I'm tired of seeing your sorry-looking faces, OUT!" He repeated.
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Thank God they didn't rip us off.
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"Shit! We're free, babe! Percie said with her beautiful smiling face and her hair blowing in the wind. "Whoo hoo!!!" She shouted, raising both arms and doing a 360 spin.
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We made it before dark to this cool sleepy town named Cordero that had one traveler's lodge. It was either that or a Holidays Inn. I wanted the Inn, she wanted the lodge.
When I agreed with the lodge, she said "No, you're right, let's go to the Inn."...
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"You're crazy, you know that? are you sure now?"
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"No, I'm not. What do you think?" She said with a smirk.
"I'll tell you what I think... Right now!" I said as I started to chase her.
"Hahahaha"...." Ok, ok... The lodge, the lodge!!" She laughed as she ran away from me.
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We didn't sleep for most of the night, "I love you", she said in her great raspy voice.
She had a way of saying that that would bring me to my knees.
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In these modern times; "our times" as some other teenagers our age would describe them, we started being sexually active much sooner. We were no exception. Percie wasn't a virgin when we met either, having had a boyfriend of sorts specifically for that purpose when she was younger.
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But now, it's all us. For us and about us.
We haven't spent a night in a room by ourselves ever, so it was rather special.
No one bothered us and the evening was all ours to do with it as we pleased.
She set the tone and lit two candles already provided by the place. Talk about a mood for romance.
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"I love you." She mouthed without any sound. That's such a cool thing to do. So high vibe. So smooth.
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The air was thick with a sweet smell of burning wood.
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"I love you.", I responded in the same way, as I approached her to seal the moment with the already late kiss.
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We liked to play this game with unexpected flash-surprise kisses at any given time for no particular reason. It was so much fun and perfect if we ever had a mini-fight. One of those things that we did to make everything alright. It worked flawlessly.
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By the time we got serious about our plans, the clock hit 4 AM.
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Except that, we really had no plans.
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I now believe that in the back of her mind, she know this was nothing but an escapade and not a serious runaway proposition.
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The great experience had been to travel great distances most of the time hitchhiking to far away places with exotic names and exotic people. Communes, ranches, and farms where we had the chance to see and learn the ways of country life we otherwise could have never done from the city.
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Town after town, we reached all the way up to Artigas province, in Northern Uruguay,
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We had covered 560 miles on our first international traveling experience.
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We would have made it to Brazil if it wasn't because the cops at the border checked out passports and a big red alert check mark showed up on a "wanted" list they were checking.
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At first, we were "bummed out" and disappointed. We felt defeated and humiliated. We hugged and kissed and she said, kiddingly, "I will see you in twenty years when I get out." To which I responded, "It'll be less with good behavior."
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We both laughed like silly chimpanzees.
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Deep down inside, however, we both sort of wanted it to happen.
We began to worry about our parents without saying it.
We started to think how badly they must feel.
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And we missed our homes and the beauty that living there entailed. We even missed our schools and our school friends. We missed our cats and dogs. We really did. There was no denying it.
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And we were exhausted.
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So, we were deported with a smile on our faces. Maybe for the first time ever in the history of humanity.
But it was worth it. Every second of it.
From Argentina with Love…
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--End of Part 1.
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