One of the three
Page 8
“You did not know. You thought it was Bob.”
We both, because of the moment, were looking at the ceiling. There was the Jack of history, with his blue eyes that stopped being round and almond-shaped in time, to tear themselves and cover themselves with attractive wrinkles of wisdom as he used to call them.
“I thought it was Dad when you mentioned that his mother had died of cancer” she said in dismay, still looking at her father.
“The rest of the story you know it, April. But I feel I cannot say: … and they lived happily ever after.
“Mom.” April takes my hand really hard and she takes it to her heart while with the other arm, grabs the teddy bears that dad gave her. “Dad’s life is over, but yours goes on. You can get that happy ending.”
It surprises me. My daughter always manages to surprise me and being the one to knock me out. I look back at the ceiling. Matt seems smiling at me, nodding his head at his little girl.
“That’s right, April. Your father would have said the same thing.”
April seemed happier than ever the next day. I would be responsible for telling her other stories before going to sleep. Stories that had to do with her father, for example. So that she knows that time of Matt’s life that she did not get to know and that I did have the pleasure to.
When I leave April at school, I go to the cemetery. I have not gone back since we buried Matt. To my disastrous and hated, Jack, at first. I leave some flowers in his grave and I read the word “Always” engraved in gold letters under the date of birth and death.
“I am what I am thanks to you, Matt”, I thank aloud. “If you had not encouraged me to fulfill my dreams, I do not know where I would be now. Maybe serving coffees with Jerry. Or anywhere else.” I am wiping my tears. “Thank you for giving me the best years of my life. For being my best friend and having given me the most precious girl I know you’ll always be proud of. I promise that I will do what I can to be the woman you always said she would be: smart, strong, constant and hard-working. I should believe in magic and she pursues his dreams. I do not know how you’ve done it, but I think you’ve guided me from somewhere so that I could tell her in an original way how our story began. Neighbor, I have to go now.”
I put my hand to my mouth. I give him a kiss and I touch the grave. At that very moment, accompanied by a draft, I feel a hand sliding down my hair and touching it gently.
“Matt? Is that you?” I ask, looking around.
And I picture him there, standing, knowing that I cannot see him and laughing by knocking me out.
CHAPTER 24
—
The best coincidences of life are those that bring you good memories.
TWO MONTHS LATER
NOW
April and I have agreed to go to Jerry’s Coffee shop twice a week. Not more, no less.
“I’m going to be like a cow with those crepes!” I always tell her, as my friend Kim has always said to me laughing.
Fate can sometimes be capricious. And magically unexpected. We can wish something strongly without being aware of what we really want and… Bam! The universe conspires to make it come true.
When we leave school and we go to the coffee shop on Friday, I know before entering that something extraordinary will happen that maybe, I had been waiting for a longtime without knowing it.
I see him from the street. I can see those brown eyes that I knew very well years ago. They are looking at me with the happiness of seeing me again after… Uff! How time flies. Many years! Fourteen, to be exactly. We stopped writing each other when he heard I was having a serious and honest relationship with Matt. Australia finally lasted more than three years.
I smile at him. He smiles at me sitting at the usual table, as if he had never moved there, with a coffee he does not like in front of him and a thousand confusing memories in his head. I bent down to speak to April and pointing to the man sitting at the table, I say:
Do you see that man over there?”
“Uh-huh” April answer, looking at him curiously.
“It’s Bob, but actually his name is Charles. Do you want to meet him?”
“There’s your happy ending.”
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