Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Old Tequila Dreams

Somewhere down south in one of those beaches in Mexico, there is a string of run down shacks where old retired guitarists play slow electric numbers and sell tequila and make a living.


Old men who have nothing more to look ahead in life than death.
Anyone is welcome to come over , stay a few days, have a nice time and leave. I decided to move there and set my own shack. Old and pretty much having nothing more to look forward in my life myself, I thought this was my last resting place. My fingers are not as fast as it used to be to play fast tracks on my electric guitar, but I play those vinyl tracks to attract immature youngsters who just want to have a nice time for a while.

And then I met my old crush in one of those shacks. She was old, but she was still beautiful. She was with an old Mexican Indian who seemed very much like an old mexican Indian. I imagined that years ago, she must have come traveling all the way, met him and settled down. Maybe they had kids, maybe they were happy. Why did I bother ? She did recognize me, I went to her, she invited me over to her table for a drink and I graciously accepted the offer. It turned out that the Mexican did not speak English, but did speak Spanish, which she was quite good at. And in the ensuing conversation she was the designated translator. And then she told me that Its been exactly a year after she had married him. Just a year ! I wish I had met her a year before ! He wasnt a conversation king. He wasnt attractive - those heavy wrinkles on his face told it all .. and he didnt have anything that anyone would want to marry him for. And then I asked her ..

Why did you marry him ? Why ?

She did not answer me, neither did she translate but just silently stared at me with a heavy face. For an instant, I wished I had married her.

I wished them both a good evening, left that place, went to my shack and played an old track which , to me, sounded like Blaze of Glory . And then a sudden burst of thoughts flashed in front of me.... I wanted to go back in time, have a nice life and dream of children and a life with a family.

But it was late .. much too late ... or was it ?

No comments:

"Florentino is so in love with Fermina that he eats gardenias and drinks cologne so that he can know her taste. He becomes drunk on the cologne, and his mother finds him the next morning, in a puddle of his vomit, in a cove of the bay where drowning victims are known to wash ashore" - Love in the time of Cholera