I see you, Bruno

Chapter Eighteen

His heart was racing. It felt as if it wanted to jump out of his chest so that Lucia could always hold it close to her. The sun had wandered and was leaning towards the horizon. The first stars began to shine. Lucia's hand was intertwined with Bruno's, he couldn't stop smiling. It was incredible how much this girl made him happy.

"Do you also think that this tree has a funny shape?" asked Lucia at one point. Her head rested on his chest and she looked up at him.

"I don't know," Bruno shrugged. "I mean, the branches are already strangely bent."

"Yeah, and the tree trunk too ... like a vase.". suddenly her head shot up and she looked down at Bruno. "Can you see into the future just for humans?" she asked.

"Ahm," Bruno made and sat up. He pulled Lucia onto his lap. "No, well ... it's hard to describe, you know? I mean, I only see moments. Sometimes, like with Andres the other day, I see the person and something that just happened. But then maybe I just see a butterfly or something and then it's a mystery, like in the books always. It's different."

"So," Lucia said slowly. Bruno was curious to know what she was getting at. "Can't you look into the future and tell me if this tree here will still look as funny later?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"You offered once that you could see into my future," she played around with the fringe of Bruno's poncho. "And if I promise you here that in - I don't know - thirty years I'll come back to this tree here ... can you see that?"

"I don't know," Bruno confessed. "It's a little more complicated than that. I mean, I can try, yes, but I don't know if there might be something even more important in your life that will come to the fore - after all, thirty years is a long time. We'd be fifty by then."

"And maybe married and parents," Lucia slipped out. "Oh - I mean, not necessarily, so ..." she turned tomato red, suddenly finding the blades of grass very interesting.

"Hey," Bruno said gently. "I may have said once that I didn't see myself married in the future, but that was before I got to know you. If I could, I would marry you right here"

"Which isn't necessary," Lucia's head only got redder. "We're only twenty, there's still a while to go. But if it did, I'd be happy for you to be my husband then too" she added. Bruno hugged her even closer.

When they went back to Casita later, because Lucia wanted to know what happened to the tree in the future, the sun had already set. Bruno thought it was cute how she thought about such simple things. Sometimes her head resembled that of a child - constantly wandering thoughts that found no footing and revolved around the craziest things.

"You're perfect, you know that?" he said, squeezing her hand. Somehow they didn't care if anyone could see them. Bruno didn't want to hold back anymore - if he wanted to hold the hand of the woman he loved, he would.

"No, I'm not," Lucia searched for something on the floor. "I'm a paradox."

"Paradox?"

"Yep," she nodded. "I want to be happy, but I think of things that make me sad. I'm lazy, yet I'm very ambitious. I don't like myself, but I also love who I am. I say I don't care, but I really do. I crave attention but reject it when it comes my way. I'm a conflicted contradiction," she sighed. "Not perfect, but paradox".

"Then paradox is the new perfect from now on," Bruno said, kissing her on the hand. "But what do you think of that makes you sad?"

"Various things," she was still looking searchingly at the floor, but at the same time didn't seem to be looking for anything at all. It was more as if she was keeping a lookout for something random. "Aha!" she exclaimed, bending down. She had found a flat stone that had a dark colouring. "Isn't it pretty?"