Memories of San Juan

Chapter 17

  “I was only joking with you.”

  “I guessed so,” I answered and stared back at her hands.

 “There you go, it’s done.”

  Inspecting the wet mark, I noticed that the stain was truly gone. “Thanks.”

  “Hold on,” she called back when I got up from the seat, “I need to give you hot water in a bucket which you can use to bathe yourself.”

  “There is no water upstairs?”

  “There’s only cold water. I hadn’t yet turned on the heater.”

  “No need Christina, I can manage with the cold water.”

  “I won’t agree! You just got saturated with water and now you want to get a freezing shower so that you can become ill?”

  “All right, let me help you then.”

  “Darling just go upstairs and get undressed, you can’t remain in those clothes.”

  “I can’t let you to carry a whole bucket of water up the stairs alone!”

  “I’m used to it. I grew up all my life doing things on my own, so don’t you worry about me.”

  “That means I should do it on my own.”

  “Rosalina, you love to argue! Just go!”

  I couldn’t quarrel further and so I went up to my room to get undressed. When I opened my door, I felt the warmness of the surrounding come upon my body like a heat wave. I was really cold, I realized. Gently, I removed my dress and placed it on the floor beside my mirror then released my wet hair while his images engaged my head continuously like a never ending motion picture. As his face and muscular body remained in my insight view, I didn’t even see how I was staring at myself in the mirror as if I were to be seeing him there in front of me. I didn’t even notice how excited I was. My hunger that had been building up since morning had also diminished. At once when I heard the door unlock, I became aware of my naked feature in the image of the mirror and hurriedly wrapped my hands round my nude breasts.

  “Oh I’m sorry.”

  It was Christina with the bucket of water.

  “May I enter?”

  “Yes you can,” I answered when I had a towel covered round me.

  With all her might, she raised the bucket and positioned it in the huge spaced bathtub. As soon as she turned away to leave the room I called out to her, “Christina!”

  “Yes?” she called back.

  “Can you please help me to take my clothes?”

  She smiled, “No problem at all.”

  Smiling back, I picked them up from the floor in the room and handed them over to her. When she was gone, I rushed to the bathroom, closed the bathtub sink, filled it with the hot water, and put my legs one by one inside until I was in, fully submerged by the warm water. I spent about an hour there only thinking about him. About Leonard.

The smell of oil was overwhelming that it began to nauseate Julia, and the day seemed to put off longer than what she could handle anymore, especially having to take order from those nincompoops. Annoyingly, filled with exceeding desperation, Julia grabbed her things, stuffed them roughly into her bag, and dashed out of the kitchen and out of the restaurant- invisible to everyone. Her eyes grabbed view of the milky moon hiding by the corners of the sky scrapers. How much she wished she could tear each one of them down, so she could finally get some air to breathe or any kind of view to get to see. Her hand brushed through her red, scattered hair as she began to wonder whether Rosalina had already received her letter. The memory of Rosalina tugged at her heart as she crossed to the next street, hearing footsteps behind her for the second time. Staring back in fear, she found the same group of men she had not too long ago met in the restaurant chasing her. Instantly, her heartbeat raced much faster and she gasped. Then so naturally, she began to run away, sprinting so quickly that she could not make out between the side-walk street and the empty highway road right until she bumped into the chest of an elder man. “Oh, God!” she screamed, believing him to be one of them.

  The unknown man straight away held her gently by the shoulders. “Calm down,” he said and looked beyond her, catching sight of the guys she was running away from. He kept glaring at them until they got the message and casually, showing no importance, turned around and left. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking down at the young lady, only now noticing how pretty she was.

  Julia nodded sharply. “Yes. Are they gone?”

  “They are,” he assured her, touching her arm. “A young lady like you should not be wandering London streets alone.”

  “I was coming back from work,” she told him, also drifted by his charm.

  “Well then, you should be more careful next time.”

  “I will. Thank you,” Julia stated, and began to watch him continue on his route.

  He smiled a little when he turned to see her once more, and then asked, “You work in La Paradis?”

  She nodded again.

  An amiable smirk crossed his lips and finally disappeared as he looked straight and went on.

  Julia smiled to herself, wandering what all that was about.