I adjust the zoom of my
binoculars to see my objective with greater clarity. A strong gust of wind
displaces my line of sight across the beach and my vision becomes contaminated by
the grotesque sight of two hairy buttocks peeping over khaki-green swimming
trunks like two snow-capped twin-peaks. I flinch away and get back to my priority.
I´m on red-alert, like a life-guard, caring for the safety of those on the
beach.
The
lenses of my device fill with a bloody red, bubbling from the heart, gushing
from the aorta, tainted by lust. Yes, I´d swear that that was the colour. I
zoom out and rigorously contemplate the details of the scene. A drop lands on
my trousers. I´m not sweating, it came from my mouth. I notice a light pressure
in my swimming trunks and a heat from the inside of my toenails to the top of
my head, conquering my whole body. My pupils dilate and in ecstasy I jump down from
my chair onto the hot sand.
I
run. I jump the first wave. I struggle through the rest and when they reach my
knees I descend into the water to swim the rest of the way. I unintentionally
scrape the tips of my toes along the sea-bed, and am apprehended by a growth of
seaweed which peeps above the water-line to gaze in malice at the victim I´m
trying to save so urgently. I take her in my arms and desperately carry her to the
shore, shielding her with the breadth of my back to safeguard her dignity. I feel
two protruding lumps pressing against me.
I´m struggling, she weighs more than I thought. Shouts. I hear hundreds
shouting. My head is filled with sounds, complaints, defamations, vulgarity. I
ignore them. I am a hero, a poet, Cortázar’s Minotaur, the one who challenges
society not to stand out but because he simply does not know how to be someone
he´s not, to live a lie.
My
actions sometimes have grave consequences. I leave her to rest on the sand and
I crouch down by her side. I gaze into her eyes as they open. They are as green
as the algae the sea left on my flesh. The depth of her soul resonates with my
own, as do her eyes. Her swimsuit is blood-red, as red as my blood. Are we one
of the same or simply one?
“Give
her mouth-to-mouth for Christ´s sake!”
“Yes!
Just stop playing around with her!”
I
feel the envy of those who surround me but I am enamoured and deaf to their
orders. I only pay attention to her eyes, her eyebrows, her mouth. Pleasure,
connection. And as the sun sinks beneath the horizon, I lower my neck and my
mouth to hers, until we unite. I kiss her. A spectator dares to intervene with:
“What
the hell are you doing you madman?”
I lift my gaze a
little but I ignore the voices that try to quell my passion and return to pressing
my lips against her own. My eyes widen as much as hers and I open her mouth
with mine. I blow a gust of air into the sacred organs that allow her to
breathe, to live, to exist in this mad world where everything, even nature,
worships her and surrenders to her beauty.
I then press against her
chest, not wanting to damage the bosom that will feed our future children. A blessèd
fountain of cool water jets from her mouth, refreshing me in these hot hours of
the third of July; a day that I will never forget because of her smile. I drink
the fluid from her lungs; I slurp the jet as a puppy licks her paws to keep
them clean, pure, virgin as you are.
You come back to life.
You rise in a fit of coughs. You inhale. From your mouth erupts traces of the
sea. Your mouth and mine are magnets, like the north and the south poles. Allow
me to think of you as my darling.
“You´ve saved me!” she
cries. I stay silent, absorbed in her gaze.
“What a fright!” I
remain in contemplation. Her voice eclipses me.
“Well, thanks for
that.”
The crowd breaks up
but we both stay there. The north and the south, the sea and the sky. She
smiles at me and I see her teeth. They are yellow like sunlight. She´s the one
for me. She and I stand together, our gazes fixed. She seems timid and bows her
head to the ground. A stranger steps in:
“Gran! Are you all
right?”
“Yes Sam, tell gramps
to start making the paella. I´ll be a tad late today.”
Translated by Austin Lovell
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