Dead Awake: The Last Crossing

by Hades

CHAPTER 5

  El Pajaro de Fuego

  The days passed by comfortably. I spent most of my time with Noelia and saw much of her family. Noelia took me to all her favorite places and I found myself falling deeper and deeper into the pit of love, where no escape could be found; though I would have had no part in escape, even if there had been signs that foretold a future full of torment. Yes, I would have gladly let the rope dangle that would have pulled me out of the pit, for such was my case: an everlasting well of love, a place that was magical, surpassing all I’d ever hoped for.

  I found that my Spanish had improved dramatically, or had been much better, than I thought to start with. Noelia, too, had experienced an increased ability to speak to me in Spanish, which she had scarcely learned as a child in school, but had since forgotten it since her family only spoke Guarani at home.

  Time passed by too quickly but we were happy. Neither of us spent a wasted moment. Nothing, in this new relationship, was difficult to overcome. We did not have to work at it very hard. We just enjoyed each other; therefore we did not have the little upsets that one so often has with a mate. Nothing in our characters was unrewarding, dull, or insulting to one another. Nothing was too much to handle. It was the sort of thing I’d been missing all these years! If only things had been a little different, I could have asked this girl to marry me right then, and lived happily ever after. That is how I wanted it to be... and perhaps things would become different soon, I thought. I sure longed for that... We both did.

  During this early time of our courtship, I would sometimes find other notes, or poems, attached to my door. They came regularly, almost predictably, but I hardly had any mind to pay much attention to them; except, of course, to thank them for how eloquently they put into words the emotions and events I was living through. I would often find a poem placed on my door on the day when a major event happened; so I learned to predict when I’d most likely find one. My forecasts were so accurate that I almost became accustomed or dependent sometimes, to finding those happy poems.

  Still, as happy as I was, there was an uneasy place left in my mind for nostalgia. Not that I missed home so much, to me the island was home now. But it was as if I had already gone back to the States and was missing Natial. Never before had I experienced a sense of nostalgia before it happened. It was as if I was having a premonition of the feeling itself. Even spending all my time with Noelia didn’t cure this dread of having to go back. The weight of it remained up until one night when she took me to the top of some hill where we sat together, under a tree, speaking of devotion and things that ease the soul.

  Our conversation made my heart feel light, and my bad feelings went away. There, on top of that hill, we pledged our eternal love for one another, saying that our devotions would endure all tests-until the end of time. We spoke of how we’d watch the stars, under that same sky, for the rest of forever and never be apart from one another. That was our promise to each other.

  In recollection, I recognize the size of it. Indeed my love for her was genuine and eternal. If only there could really be a way to be together for the rest of time... Ah what a thought! Noelia was the answer that I’d been looking for all these years. She was what I had longed for, to fill my empty void and comfort me. We had to be united!