I told her: “I intend to get to know you a little more tonight.”<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t answer because she simply couldn\u2019t answer, only listen, though I wasn\u2019t sure she was listening to me.<\/p>\n
Because at Chialva Pharmacy, her three-dimensional, light beauty struck my heart. Blue eyes, pink lips, dark hair, and a Gucci perfume in her right hand. She looked drawn by the gods.<\/p>\n
And I was just a lonely man in love with the woman from an advertising poster. And that night\u2026 yes, that incredible night, I was going to love her forever.<\/p>\n
I waited for hours sitting in 25 de Mayo Square, across from the store. I watched neighbors come and go with their shopping bags, make phone calls, chat quickly. I thought of her. Of our future together.<\/p>\n
At 11 p.m. the pharmacy closed. The employees locked up and left.<\/p>\n
The cameras weren\u2019t on.<\/p>\n
A unique, unrepeatable Sunday night for the two of us.<\/p>\n
I stood up, a few minutes of contemplation. I felt inspired, happy, blessed.<\/p>\n
And I walked toward the pharmacy window. I touched the glass that separated us with my hands.<\/p>\n
And from my right pocket I pulled out a hammer.<\/p>\n
A couple of blows\u2026<\/p>\n
The glass exploded over us.<\/p>\n
The alarms went off.<\/p>\n
I took a few steps toward her.<\/p>\n
I caressed the surface of her face, brought my mouth close. Our first kiss.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
We kissed. A wet, slobbery kiss.<\/p>\n
And I hugged her.<\/p>\n
And the plastic paper crunched against me.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t care about her name, her surname, her country. I cried while pressing the advertising poster against my body.<\/p>\n
“Thank you for this, my love,” I said.<\/p>\n
A policeman was behind me, watching.<\/p>\n
He cleared his throat.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t ask questions, didn\u2019t want explanations.<\/p>\n
I turned my head and saw him.<\/p>\n
With tears, I made a gesture of satisfaction.<\/p>\n
And everything around me slowed down.<\/p>\n
The policeman lowered his gaze, ashamed.<\/p>\n
He knew, like me, the fire of passion. He knew what it was to be madly in love.<\/p>\n
And in one movement, I lifted the poster from its place, looked at the policeman one last time, and ran with her, body to body, out of the pharmacy.<\/p>\n
And the policeman ran after me, waving his hands and shouting.<\/p>\n
A race of two with her.<\/p>\n
“You won\u2019t take her from me,” I told the policeman.<\/p>\n
A car passed by with Gilda\u2019s song, \u201cNo Me Arrepiento de Este Amor\u201d blasting.<\/p>\n
And it felt good. It felt like a sign from heaven.<\/p>\n
But the policeman was fast, too fast, and he stuck his right foot between mine and I fell. I fell with her.<\/p>\n
And on the dirt street, the advertising poster broke in the fall, mutilating my woman into several pieces of plastic paper.<\/p>\n
And I stopped being happy.<\/p>\n
A happiness that for an instant I believed belonged to me.<\/p>\n
The policeman stood there, waiting for me to react on the ground. But I stayed there lying down\u2026 I don\u2019t remember how long I stayed there, and he left.<\/p>\n
And I returned to my small house in Pedro Cano neighborhood where I lived with my mother and father. I never told them what happened.<\/p>\n
In El Lapace\u00f1o, the town\u2019s local newspaper, they wrote that the glass was broken but there was no robbery. An advertising poster of a perfume flew away and was destroyed by dogs. Pure yellow press lies. And my truth kept in silence until today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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