When you’re a black young Cuban woman walking on the streets of Old Havana, you receive a fair amount of attention from male tourists. Tall, big, short, slim, blonde, brunette; for them is like visiting an oasis where the exotic animals are pleased to be hunted. It’s a jungle game.
When you’ve lived in Cuba, prisoner of its clouds, you start questioning whether you’ve been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hanging out with foreigners tastes like freedom and smells like abundance. It’s the closest that ordinary people can get to the border of dreaming of another land; another end.
I was 25, fresh and radiant. Life was not the best, but it was balanced. I had a job that paid fairly acceptable for the average. The wound of the abandonment after my first love left was healing, and I had just started my spiritual journey. Somewhere in the sky was written that the Universe was benevolent and that I was on the right track.
On a sunny sweaty morning of August, I put on one of my favorite dresses and went out to buy a birthday gift for a friend. I also wanted to buy some perfume and hair products for my curls. I was feeling abundant and great. Something awesome was about to happen.
I took the popular street -Obispo, in Old Havana, as always full of tourists. In Cuba, tourists are like visitors at a Zoo park. They go with the aim of experiencing the living museum and the decadent society that crumbles day by day inside its cell. But that day I wasn’t thinking much. I felt alive, and that was all that mattered. I had managed to smile again after several months of mourning Rui’s departure. Resigned but hopeful; that was good enough.
I had bought a sandalwood cologne I had been targeting for a while and was on my way to buy some conditioner before picking up the birthday cake. Among the crowd, I heard a friendly voice that dared to get my attention. “Hola” – He said with a funny tone in Spanish. It was something in between Argentinian and Italian accents.
-“Can I join you?”- He inquired after I responded to his first ice-breaker.
I looked at him over my shoulders while saying in my head:
-“Seriously?! What makes you think that I would like that? Don’t you think you’re too old for me Mr?”
So mean, I know. But I didn’t say that. Instead, I said:
– “Well, I’m gonna buy some hair products, don’t think that’s something a guy like you would enjoy the most, right?”
To that he responded -“Well, how about I accompany you to buy that stuff, and then you join me for lunch?”
I was hungry, so, why not? I said – “Okay, let’s do that”.
In my head I was just thinking, a nice lunch wouldn’t hurt and after that of course he’s not gonna see me again.
But what a twist to the story of my life.
He went with me to the store where I bought my hair stuff. The high prices of the supermarket-found toiletries sparked his need to tell me he could send me a box of those products for a few euros. In my mind I was just repeating “bla bla bla, there he is all braggy trying to trade me for a box of champoos”.
-Sure, let’s go, I said.
He took me to a fancy restaurant by the bay, where I ordered a dish that cost more than my monthly Cuban salary (30 EUR) by then.
The middle-aged man was pretty funny, smart and knowledgeable. It was more entertaining than I had anticipated. He continued on his mission of showing off.
– “I can send you a laptop, a new phone, this and that. What do you need?”.
I wanted to shut him up so I said -”A house, I need a house. Will you also send me a house?”.
To which he answered with a confident “Yes, why not?”
I laughed.
At the end of the delicious eating experience, he invited me to hang out the next day. “Here’s when he attempts to get something back”, I thought. But I said yes, nonetheless.
We met the next afternoon, and the next morning, and every day until he left one week after. In some strange way he had caught my attention and I just felt so taken care of that the 25-year gap didn’t bother me anymore. It was not love what I felt, but it didn’t feel wrong either. Somehow he made me feel protected, and worthy.
He left, but promised to come back soon. We would keep in touch with hopes of building a bond beyond the borders. One month later, he sent me a laptop, a smart phone and a camera. Two months after that, he sent me the money for the house.
To be continued…
