Time After Time

By L. R. Cerna y March

Technically speaking the novel uses the first person and begins with one traditional narrator changing to two to finally sublime into pure dialogs.
It is the story of two eternal lovers both on their way from the time before time into the time beyond life, beyond time, beyond the beyond, into their eternal time of two souls in one being.
The protagonists are the Haitian Eve Renée Marguerite Dorleac, born Hirsch, and the Colombian Nicolás Rubén Jaramillo Sarmiento during their common and intensive moments in Europe. Both belong to a land of magic where they exist above and apart from reality. Both are possessed of each other and are protected by a set of wise and benevolent loas called Rada. The key years of the pilgrimage are 1968, 1988 and 2008.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Mar 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9783738678123

L. R. Cerna y March

Unter diesem Namen hat der Autor schon 2 weitere Romane in englischer Sprache veröffentlicht, nämlich "Time after Time" und "Richard Pages". Dies ist sein erster Roman in deutscher Sprache.

Book preview

Epilog

Chapter 1: Hamburg 1988

The central station in Hamburg is always a problem for me. I never know if I am on my right way. I must find my way out to Holzdamm, the main entrance of the hotel, that means I should go upstairs from the arriving track and turn left at the main corridor, so I come out at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus, Kirchenallee, then I go left one more time, passing the lovely antique public urinal with its unforgettable perfume, cross the street at the traffic light and then I am at Holzdamm. Now it is very difficult to miss the hotel at the right side of the street. I already see the signs of the hotel where ones way is always crossed by well-known people like Udo Lindenberg, Altkanzler Helmut Schmidt or movie and TV stars and their court. The hotel is facing the Außenalster, but the main entrance is indeed at Holzdamm.

After checking in I am happy to be in my room. I should pick up my ID-card at 16:00 hours at the registration desk before the briefing begins at 16:30 hours. So I can do some shopping at Alsterhaus before that, some cheese, wine, juicy, bread, flûtes au sésame and sparkling water, as usual. Alsterhaus has the best Deli Department in town, a sort of institution in Hamburg.

I read again the headache speech the author didn’t want to give us to prepare:

(…) Das Heranzoomen ist gleichsam die Metapher der Ausrichtung auf die Referenz, sprich: eines Benennens, das gleichzeitig das Berühren des Referenten – als Bürgschaft der gelungenen Benennens – versprechen würde. Diese Bewegung ist aber dann in der Verräumlichung weder dem vorausgesetzten Referenten noch dem in sich genommenen technischen Dispositiv zuzuschreiben (...)

and I just can say: „Fine arts!" A traditional translation with a lot of time is OK, but a simultaneously interpretation ad hoc, never! At least for us, the interpreters of the conference. And that was something I did put very clear to our client. If we don’t get the manuscript in advance, we are not obliged to interpret into the target languages, as specified in point 12 of the contract.

- That will be the last time I accept a job in the field of fine arts… Oh, I am late…

At the registration desk I met my colleagues among a lot of officials waiting on different rows to get the desired ID for the conference. I stood on the row behind a lady and something in the lady came familiar to me, so I paid attention to what she said at her turn and I realized that she probably was French. Her first name Eve electrocuted me, but her last name didn’t mean anything to me. However, I don’t know what forced me to say to her neck:

- Are you Eve Hirsch?

She turned back to me and began saying like someone who feel disturbed by a nasty fly:

- And who are y… But she couldn’t finish the sentence, she just said:

- Nick, I cannot believe it! It is you after so many years. I recognize your eyes… Considering that this registration is only for participants of the conference, what is your mission at the conference? Let me do my registration and I’ll wait for you outside, in the hall, if you don’t mind.

- Yes, please, after my briefing! is all I could say at that moment.

She finished her registration and left to the hall without turning to me. I also finished registration and met my people for the briefing, we checked the installation with the booths and I gave some final instructions to my team before going to meet Eve. I also told them I was not going to be available until late.

It took me some time to find Eve in the hall, because she sat hidden behind a kind of small wall drinking sparkling water and eating some olives. She stood up and we embraced each other and I had somehow wet eyes as she also had. As the waiter came by, I wanted to have a tea, Darjeeling, Second Flush, but they only had English breakfast, a very popular blend as the waiter revealed to me. So I desisted of tea and ordered the same as Eve.

Eve began telling me about her life and asking about my life all in once.

- I am so much interested to know more about your professional life, to know if you’re happy, if you still write poetry, if you stopped smoking, I would like to share thoughts about our society of today… You probably are not as inquisitive as I am? I’m perhaps boring you; tell me merely if it’s the reason why you don’t answer.

Well, I had no chance at all to say anything because she kept talking and talking. So I decided just to listen to her first, hoping to get my line at her first breath break…

- I understood at registration you are here as an interpreter and I think you are very busy, I imagine the importance of your work and your stress, I nevertheless feel anxious about your answer.

I wondered how she caught all that information at registration on her way out to the hall and was just watching her and intending to talk, but again I had no chance to say something. Now I know she had no idea of my work.

- Oh, Nick! Your eyes look at me exactly as they used to look at me 20 years ago. It’s wonderful to be with you and to know you have the same feelings. I married on 1972 and I am still happy married. I have two sons.

- I married one year later on 1973 and I am also still happy married. I only have one son.

- Nick, now I am a professor for teachers and also have numerous employments: artgallery, the reason for visiting the congress, formal dinners, juryman in competitive examinations, my mother, writing, etc.

Indeed that’s the way she was and she never changed at all. She had her world and it was not mine.

- My father died recently.

Well her father was my special friend that helped to spoil our relationship on 1968. He didn’t like me and he didn’t want me to be with his daughter. Jesus! All that happened 20 years ago. Her brother Roger, the nuclear engineer, the one who knew everything better than the others, was going to die next year of cancer.

- Oh, yes! Your father… I wrote him but he never answered, of course. That was the time I determined to fight for you, afterwards I gave up… What a shame!

The silence at that moment was really embarrassing and fortunately I found a way to cut it.

- Well, Eve, after working for a while for the university, I decided to become a freelance interpreter and that is my present function at the conference. Would you like to go now for a walk? I need some fresh air.

- "Of course, Sensei. Which way?

- We go to the left. We walk to the Binnenalster under the bridge Lombardsbrücke and along Ballindamm, if you don’t mind. And stop calling me master.

- Jawohl! Yes Sir! Bien sûr Monsieur! That would be fine for me. I hope we’ll find some stores on our way because I would like to buy something to drink and maybe some snacks too.

I loved to tease him sometimes, although I knew Mister poker face never shows a reaction. Every time he didn’t look in my direction I looked at him analysing every inch of his body and of his outfit. I thought he is now heavier than he was in 1968.

- We can go to the Alsterhaus, the building you see in front of us behind the water.

- Etrange phénomène, je me sens emplie des mêmes sensations qu’autrefois.

- Tú, siempre la misma chica.

- Sooorrry, Sensei! It was my fault. I wanted to say: It’s strange; I feel exactly the same as I did twenty years ago!"

Once we were at Alsterhaus Eve bought some juicy, sparkling water and crackers.

I though she was now busy with shopping and I could watch her undisturbed. I considered that she still had the same delicious body she used to have with a few pounds less of course. I wanted to bite her on her neck…

- You are so quiet, Nick, did I say something you didn’t like?

- No, Eve, I was just thinking where to go for dinner. We can go to Doc Cheng’s, one of the three restaurants of the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten at Neuer Jungfernstieg, only a few meters from here, where we can have some Asian food. D’accord?

What a pity, they won’t have your neck or your breast or your legs or… on the menu.

- Yes, d’accord. I hope this would be a peaceful and nice place where we could talk undisturbed! I have the impression you know a lot of places here in Hamburg. Do you come frequently to Hamburg?

Oh, Nick you will never know how much I would like to swallow you entirely.

- I come to Hamburg about 3-4 times per year. At the main door of the store we go left, cross Große Bleichen and we cross the street at the next pedestrian light at our right and go straight down until we get to the restaurant. Indeed the place is peaceful and nice.

Well, my room would be more peaceful and nice to have you for dinner.

- It is really a sort of miracle to meet each other again.

- Yes, it is! What do you think of fried rice with langostinos and a Jever for dinner?

- It sounds great to me, because I don’t feel like having a big dinner tonight.

After having you for dinner or should I order you for dessert? What a nice idea! We came to the restaurant and got a nice table and we ordered immediately fried rice with langostinos and Jever.

- Nick, tell me more about your job. Do you really translate simultaneously? Into which languages do you translate?

- "Well, I don’t translate simultaneously I really don’t know how it should work. As an interpreter I facilitate communication from one language message into its equivalent in another language simultaneously; that’s where the name comes from. In simultaneous interpretation, short: SI, the interpreter renders the message into the target language as quickly as he can formulate it from the source language, while the source language speaker continuously speaks.

Sitting in a sound-proof booth, the SI interpreter speaks into a microphone, while clearly seeing and hearing the source language speaker via earphones. The simultaneous interpretation is rendered to the target language listeners via earphones.

At the present conference, German is the official language and there are 5 booths for Spanish, French, English, Italian and Russian.

Simultaneous translation and simultaneous translator do not exist at all and are false per definitionem.

My working languages are German, Spanish and English."

- Well, thanks for the lesson, Sensei! So obviously you work with a team. Do you have any other function at the conference?

I hope you don’t so we can spend more time together. I spend my time watching the film my brains have already built, the same film again and again.

- Yes! We are a team of 10 interpreters for the 5 languages I mentioned and I am Chef d’Equipe, which means, I am the Head Interpreter of my interpreting team and I coordinate teamwork and act as an interface with clients at the conference. At the conference I work together with Fernando, another interpreter.

- Fine, but what do you do when somebody speaks French, for instance?

- In this case we do our job via relay interpreting. That is to say, a source language interpreter renders the message into a language common to every interpreter, who then renders the message into his specific target language. For instance, you say something in French, the French booth renders your message into German and the remaining interpreters render the message from German into the other target languages. But that is work and now I don’t want to speak with you about work.

At that time, Eve managed to move on the table her right hand to my left hand. I didn’t take my hand away as she presses it firmly and looked deeply into my eyes; lasting an eternity, the same way she used to do 20 years ago. At the time she kissed my hands I knew I was near to suffer an accident at work.

Oh Nick! You don’t know how much I dream of you every night and during the conference my thoughts are going to be so powerful that I’ll believe you are by my side, I feel you, my body is burning.

After dinner we went to the hotel’s hall, exactly one floor over the restaurant with very nice chairs to seat on and a piano with a piano player, and had a delicious Darjeeling while Eve began talking about her jobs.

- What would you like to know about me? …After having met you, I went on studying French literature, medieval, classical and modern, comparative literature also, I wrote a thesis about a poet, his poetry about painters and painting, but I had to earn my life so I passed a competitive exam to become a teacher and after that moment, as I had a lot of work teaching, I couldn’t go on studying what I loved and as I had a family life also I remained a teacher for teenagers from eleven to nineteen. I loved my job; it gave me wonderful moments, especially theatre moments, publishing my pupils’ writings… I had beautiful relationship with the students they became afterwards. But one day, I became inspector for teachers, and that has been difficult and given less satisfaction. I can explain it because I’m not proud nor ambitious so that I didn’t take pleasure people usually find in this powerful function". Anyway I learnt a lot of things and had also grateful moments but I didn’t like to have to do something I didn’t approve sometimes and I felt I had lost the complete freedom I had when I was teaching.

Now I’m busy with an art gallery which brings me much work but pleasure too.

On the other hand, my own family, my marvellous sons, their success, my way of living, my friends fill my life up.

Reading, writing, teaching, music have fulfilled my expectations but, I must confess: oddly, I’m still thinking and dreaming of…"

I didn’t answer. I just looked at my watch and said:

- It is already five past nine, Eve. I think it is time to come back to the hotel.

- Yes, Nick, I agree with you.

- We can walk again over the Lombardsbrücke, coming out at An der Alster, where our hotel is.

At An der Alster I asked Eve:

- Do you allow me to kiss you one time?

- I thought you would never try to kiss me again.

I didn’t kiss her one but many times getting encouraged every time by her answers, I felt between delight and delirium and it was imperative for me to stop kissing her because she was absorbing my soul and my body with her mouth. We came to the hotel, said good night to each other and appointed us for the next day after the conference.

The first day of the conference was over at 15:00 hours. Due to the fact that this August day was very hot and I had perspired a lot in the booth, we agreed on going upstairs to slip into something more comfortable after taking a shower and meeting at her room at 16:00 hours.

- I suggest we go for a walk at the Außenalster and then we go to the Kajüte for dinner. It is a nice restaurant on, yes on, the Außenalster, about 400 meters away from the hotel.

- That sounds great to me. I must confess I kept listening the Spanish channel during the conference with the only purpose to hear your voice, fortunately, Fernando has a different voice than yours, so I could quickly monitor your turns.

- So, you didn’t pay attention to the conference… j’accuse!

I must confess I did my job that day automatically like in a trance or should I say in a delirium with only one thought: To smell her, to taste her, to touch her, to swallow her, to eat her, to be swallowed, eaten by her, to be possessed by her, to be broken into sparkles, stars of eternity coming from the first day of creation.

- Without my lawyer I won’t say a single word more!

- OK, lawyer.

- Honestly, I often hear you talking Spanish in my dreams.

- So, you dream of me once in a while. I must confess that I also have had sporadically strong and some times very passionate dreams of you.

We had some turbot and a Jever and enjoy the never ending enchanting sunset from the terrace of the restaurant while discussing about the past and exchanging furtive glances at the time the other one was looking or intending to look somewhere else.

- Do you still write poems, Nick?

- No, not any more since the time I gave you up. It was a painful experience for me and I don’t think I could be able to write again neither in Spanish nor in German. Fact is, from that moment on my writing was paralysed. Well, excluding my professional work, of course.

- I must confess, I still have all your letters and poems and after years of ignoring them I just did read them short before coming to the conference. I don’t know why, but it fits somehow to us.

- Yes, definitely, it is you, I am not that important.

- Do you remember the first poem you sent to me?

- The first I wrote for you in German, Eve, the first I wrote for you in Spanish and the first I wrote for you in English and the first English poem I sent you with the title: Just like that":

I smile

When you smile,

I cry

When you cry,

I watch

When you sleep

And I die

If you leave my life.

It was poem 25 and you really liked it just like that. But that is now history; I don’t write any more since you left my life!"

Without body contact we were getting closer and closer in our minds. Once again, we walked back to our hotel, said good night to each other and appointed us for the next day after the conference.

The second day of the conference was over at 15:30 hours. However, we managed to leave the hotel at 16:00 hours. Our target this time was one of the many Iberian restaurants between Michel, Hamburg’s landmark, and Landungsbrücken at the Ditmar-Koel-Straße. This time we had sunfish with green wine. For dessert we decided to have a walk back to the hotel, passing the Michel, going down the Ludwig Erhard Strasse, passing the Zitronenjette, where Eve said:

- Can you tell me something about this statue?

- The statue represents the Zitronenjette. Well, a lady who was a singular character that used to sale lemons, something like a lemon hawker. She died 1916. That is all I know about her.

We continued walking, using the underpass in direction of the S-Bahn Station Stadthausbrücke, crossing the Michaelisbrücke and turning left before the Heiligengeistbrücke and walking left of the water between Neuer Wall and Alter Wall, just to come out at the Alsterarkaden and Jungfernstieg, which leads to the corner Jungfernstieg and Ballindamm, along the right side of the Binnenalster, passing the Galerie der Gegenwart, going under the Lombardsbrücke and coming to the Außenalster and finally to our hotel.

I really don’t know how it happened, because until then we had had not much body contact at all nor I asked her to come into my room, we didn’t say a word, we just went to my room and were there kissing us not like desperate teenagers, but very softly and slowly. Enjoying every single contact with our tongues, with our lips, with our bodies. I felt her body shivering against me and I could not resist the desire of feeling her skin. She wore a light skirt easy to move up; my hand began to slide under the silk up to her leg and to stroke her, higher and higher along the stockings until I felt sweet, warm skin; that was too much for her, she nearly fainted in my arms.

- Eve, I must tell you that I never had betrayed my wife before.

- Nick, that is exactly what I was going to say! I also would understand if you want us to stop our doing.

Silly girl I thought, you will kill me if I dare to stop our doing now.

- Eve, it is too late now! I hope you don’t have any disease, because I don’t have any and I want to feel you as we used to feel each other 20 years ago.

- I dare to say that I feel possessed.

- Oh Eve, nous sommes fous! Somehow we are doing something forbidden, but delicious!

- Yes, we are, but it is so delicious and special, unique, wonderful for us. Life is so short! And it’s such a chance we have to find each other again!

We took off our clothes and on the way to bed Eve closed the curtains. I thought she hadn’t change at all in this matter. I told her to leave the curtains open because nobody could watch us in the room from the Außenalster.

It is strange how immediately we felt as if we had always belonged to us, to each other. Our bodies had a marvellous memory at that moment and we were eager to discover more, to know more of each other. We kissed us again and again and then I penetrated very slowly and smoothly her body. A few seconds after this she stopped kissing, took my head in her hands, moved it away and said:

- I just got the taste of your tobacco in my mouth!

- Eve, since 1980 I don’t smoke any more

- But, I got the real taste of tobacco in my mouth from your mouth, Nick.

- I really don’t smoke any more!

- You really don’t smoke any more? In this case you made a wise decision. However, I tasted tobacco! Maybe because I always kept that taste in my mind as part of you

We continued kissing and made love breathless and without hurry until midnight. Then we came to the window and saw the lights of the city in the dark night reflecting on the water, a very old song came in my mind and I sang with my ugly baritone voice:

Yo adivino el parpadeo

de las luces que a lo lejos

van marcando mi retorno.

Son las mismas que alumbraron

con sus pálidos reflejos

hondas horas de dolor.

Y, aunque no quise el regreso,

siempre se vuelve al primer amor.

La quieta calle, donde el eco dijo:

Tuya es mi vida tuyo es mi querer,

bajo el burlón mirar de las estrellas

que con indiferencia hoy me ven volver.

Volver,

con la frente marchita,

las nieves del tiempo

platearon mi sien.

Sentir,

que es un soplo la vida,

que veinte años no es nada,

que febril la mirada

errante en las sombras

te busca y te nombra.

Vivir,

con el alma aferrada

a un dulce recuerdo

que lloro otra vez.

Tengo miedo del encuentro

con el pasado que vuelve

a enfrentarse con mi vida.

Tengo miedo de las noches,

que pobladas de recuerdos,

encadenan mi soñar.

Pero el viajero que huye,

tarde o temprano, detiene su andar.

Y aunque el olvido, que todo destruye,

haya matado mi vieja ilusión,

guardo escondida una esperanza humilde,

que es toda la fortuna de mi corazón.

Volver...

- Yes, Eve, twenty years is nothing!

- Was it a Tango? I didn’t know it. I like it. You must sing it to me one more time. I feel the need of learning some Spanish. I like when you speak Spanish.

- Yes, it is the Tango Volver, Lyrics: Alfredo Le Pera, Music: Carlos Gardel first recorded in 1935.

The typical sound of a suffering stomach spoiled the magic of the moment. We laughed like children and began eating some cheese, seedless grapes and potato-bread I had bought two days before. To drink we had a Gran Reserva, Valdemadera, Denominación de Origen Cariñena, and a lot of sparkling water while doing love again.

That night we didn’t sleep at all, we just kept doing love until 6:00 o’clock and this just because we had to prepare for the conference, scheduled to start that morning at 9:00 o’clock after breakfast. We decided not to have breakfast together. We took a shower together and Eve insisted on drying my body with the towel. Well it happened to be a long drying process.

The third and last day of the conference was over after lunch. We both had already booked in advance for leaving the day after because the conference was originally planned until 15:00 o’clock. So we still had one more afternoon and a whole night for us.

We left the hotel at 14:00 hours and took the S-Bahn S1 to Blankenese, were we had a walk along the river on the Strandweg and then we went to the Lühmann Laden und Teestube, a small old wooden puppet house with self-made cakes, Cornish Cream Tea and Scones. This time we had the only black tea they serve and the waiter was able to explain the ingredients of the blend. Scones are served during the week with cherry preserve, one get only at the weekend strawberry preserve.

As we kept talking about our lives we knew our farewell was coming next day. She had her life and I had my life and we didn’t want to interfere in the life of the each other. Her world is not my world. I don’t care if I am not for her the exceptional exception she is for me. Ella es mi único amor and my first accident at work.

We took the S-Bahn S1 back to Landungsbrücken and walked to the Old Commercial Room opposite to the main entrance of Michel, at Englische Planke 10, where we had summer flounder with shrimps for dinner. Just main course for both of us and espresso for me and grappa for both afterwards. This time we kept looking at each other openly as if we were alone in the restaurant and every bite during the meal was an erotic allusion to our counterpart.

This time we took the S-Bahn S1 at Stadthausbrücke and got out at Hauptbahnhof, so we were quickly back at the hotel. We went upstairs to her room, where she said:

- I just wish to get a subtle breath of youth from the past and can’t help hoping you’ll answer according to my feelings, as twenty years is nothing, Nick.

- I daydream the whole time of being in a medieval house. A small castle for a prince and his princess, but now I just feel the anxiety for having you in my arms whispering and kissing you in your mouth: Ansiedad de tenerte en mis brazos, musitando palabras de amor, ansiedad de tener tus encantos y en la boca volverte a besar. Tal vez está llorando mi pensamiento. Mis lágrimas son perlas que caen al mar. El eco adormecido de este lamento hace que estés presente en mi soñar…

- Je suis avec toi mon délice et mon délire. You can’t imagine how much you are present in my mind. And, I discovered during the day the power of my thoughts on my body. You are in me physically and spiritually.

At that time we began kissing us softly while loosing our cloths by magic. Eve kissed my whole body and sat down at the corner of the bed to have a better position to kiss my best parts softly. After an eternity I moved her to lie on the bed and this time I began kissing every single inch of her whole body, stressing her breast and her best two parts between her legs. The smell of her body drove me crazy. And then we began making love until we felt exhausted in deep sleep. We woke up at 4 o’clock and continued making love until 7 o’clock, the time to take a refreshing shower together before going downstairs for breakfast.

This time we had breakfast together and Eve said:

- Nick, this morning I arrived to the conclusion that it is our story, it has nothing to do with the present, it’s apart all we have lived after 68 and it’s a sort of miracle to find each other again just for a few moments which do not steal anything to the persons we love.

- My wording, Eve. Destiny should decide if our ways cross again. That’s why we won’t say good bye this time. You will go first on time to get your plane. No addresses, no phone numbers, just the memory of an intensive encounter between outlaws.

Chapter 2: Marie’s foresight

Tomorrow I go for a hiking tour with my former classmates from the Ecole du Sacré Coeur, Port au Prince. We want to walk along the Aveyron, I know the landscape is wonderful there, forests, cliffs, on the top of which are small villages built in the Middle-Age, with strong fortifications, castles and abbeys…they have been the place of hard struggle, first during the Albigensian War in 1200, you know who the Catharses were and how they have been put down; then between Catholics and Protestants. The double interest historic and aesthetic will certainly give us much pleasure. My old pal, Marie Ducoste, is managing this time the tour for us. She is now a high voodoo priestess, or mambo, and also acts as a counsellor, healer, and expert protector against sorcery or witchcraft.

I hope it will not rain too much; walking the whole day in the rain is not funny. But maybe she has an arrangement with her loa. I’ll have time to think of my life.

She was the one who told me 20 years ago, in 1988, at the time she began her career as a mambo, that I was two persons in one, something rare called the eternal lovers, and that I was going to meet again my corresponding counterpart very soon. The only she couldn’t understand was the additional information the loa gave her: 3 times 2 decades. And now she wants to talk with me again about it during our hiking tour.

One should know that although voodooists profess belief in a rather distant supreme God, a original Supreme Being called the Gran Maitre, who made the world, the effective divinities are a large number of spirits called the loa, lesser deities, which can be variously identified as local or African gods, deified ancestors, Catholic saints, or else. The entire Voodoo pantheon of loa is enormous. Even Papa Doc, Dr. François Duvalier, the eight President for life of Haiti, believed that voodoo was a religion which materialized in the rites, offerings and sacrifices, in a sacerdotal hierarchy of initiation, all cultural elements drawn from religions of the different tribes moved to Hispaniola. The pantheon can expand any time to include new loa in any form like local deities and ancestral spirits. During Voodoo rites the loa mount or possess their devotes. To make it clear, there are two major categories of loa, the Rada loa and the Petro loa. The Rada are the benevolent and gentle loa. The Rada rites follow more traditional African patterns and emphasize the more positive aspects of the loa. They are characterized by the all-white clothing of the devotees and by specific drumming and dancing, always on the beat. Voodoo is not black magic and the servants of the benevolent deities must keep away from magic practices otherwise they will be severely punished. There are many recommended deeds as Alms-giving, Manger les âmes or Manger pauvre. On the other hand, the Petro loa are always the dark loa. Petro rites came out in Haiti during the slavery days as rage violence and delirium that threw off slavery. Petro are more powerful than Rada loa and more violent, menacing, deadly and ill tempered. They make big cures and do heavy work. But they only work for someone if he or she makes a promise of service to them and they take revenge if that promise is not kept. Petro rituals are characterized by red clothing and off-beat, sharp drumming.

I first thought she was crazy, but after meeting Nick shortly after our talk in 1988 I began considering true what she told me. Of course she didn’t know that my friendship with Nick finished in 1968 and that we met coincidentally one more time in 1988. But why does she want to talk with me about it now in the year 2008?

I still remember the time we were at high school in Port au Prince taking the tap-taps, the small pickups with wooden car bodies on the loading surface, painted shots of all kind of film scenes or own fantasies of the owner or of the artist, bringing to humanity sweet or deep philosophical messages like Espérance or Sans Problème or Ce n’est Rien, that handled the transportation in the island, always overcrowded with too many passengers and cargo on the hard top, as I said, taking the tap-taps after school to go the Lalue or the Delmas up the hill to Pétionville, end station of the tap-taps, where her father picked us up to Peguy Ville to stay some afternoons at the swimming pool in Marie’s house talking about the future and things like that; just children’s topics at papa Doc’s time with his Tontons Macoutes, the thugs to protect him from anything that could happen against him or as they used to characterize themselves, the Volunteers of National Security, before my family left Haiti in 1961 forever, just after François Duvalier’s, Papa Doc, take over and his falling into coma and returning to life for reigning on for twelve years. Sometimes I considered with great respect the many voodoo artefacts and small dark rooms reserved for some individual gods in her house. Since that time we, Marie and I, kept in touch first in the old fashioned way writing letters, and later by phone, fax, and now mostly by e-mails and SMS.

We were not the first or the only family who left Haiti. Marie told me during the years her family stood at Haiti that every year at least 20 more families of our circle of acquaintances emigrated to other countries, mostly to France. It was not a phenomenon due exclusively to Duvalier’s family because also later after the ouster of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Baby Doc, Haiti’s nine President for Life, the genesis continued without interruption. Not even father Aristide, the rebel priest and spiritual leader of the opposition with the street kids he protected, not the other politicians, not the military strong men, not the State Department men, not the foreign aid men, not the Protestant missionaries, not the Earthquake from 2010 could stop the intellectual bleeding of the Pearl of the Antilles.

Well, I would like to know what she really wants to talk with me about... But of course, it only can mean Nick and I, and the years 1968 – 1988 – 2008 and 2028. She said 3 times 2 decades. Does it mean Nick and I are going to meet this year 2008 again? My God! No! Mister Nicolás Rubén Jaramillo Sarmiento from San Andrés, Colombia, you are driving me crazy! And what’s all about 2028? This time she has to tell me every thing she knows about my future. Come on, knock it off! Now I better check one more time my equipment and my rucksack before I leave tomorrow to Montauban, our meeting point for the tour. So I want to stop thinking about this insane topic.

Yes, I better check the hiking essentials that belong in my rucksack as insurance against the unexpected during hiking tours, but actually I am worried about the reality of meeting Nick this year if it should happen. OK let me check up:

Detailed maps of the area for travelling on trails: Here. The sky was blue this morning but it’s getting light grey and it will probably rain again this afternoon. Oh, how inconvenient I feel right now!

Compass 0 to 360 degrees in 2 degree increments, of course liquid filled to protect the magnetic needle and its jewelled bearing, and a base plate: Here. Happy compass, I on the other hand feel completely unprotected against Nick.

Water resistant flashlight and headlamp with extra bulbs stored inside the housing and with rotating head as the on/off mechanism and with acceptance of bright beam bulbs and spare bulbs, because you never know if you have to make the last miles of the day tour after sunset: Here. I just hope we’ll have pleasure to meet again and I feel emotion when I imagine that moment.

Extra food requiring no cooking at all in case you are delayed by emergencies, foul weather, etc.: Here. My wish to meet is probably also a way of remaining young even if I feel particularly older today.

Extra clothes like basic layers and a waterproofed tube tent which get you through the worst conditions you might come up against: Here. I’d like to tell you a lot of things but I’ll wait until we meet.

True color sunglasses with indestructible polycarbonate lens to reduce the intensity of mountain skies, with 100% ultraviolet rays protection, etc.: Here, this time we won’t need glacier glasses with side shields. I thank God every minute to have given us these exceptional moments in 1988; they still give me strength, confidence, serenity and my life is even happier than before; they still remain in my heart and are my deep secret.

First-Aid kit with plenty of adhesive band-aids and sterilized bandages, rubber gloves, etc.: Here. I wonder what I told you about my life at our first encounter, I was so much overwhelmed by emotion.

Swiss Army Pocket knife with standard features: Here. I hope you can work, I can’t do much but thinking of meeting you again.

Waterproof and windproof matches and strike-anywhere matches in waterproof container: Here. I hope with so much strength that we’ll find the right moment and the right place to meet again.

Firestarter like chemically-treated fire sticks for quickly starting a fire in emergency situations: Here. Now it’s raining here and I am still thinking of you!

Water, filter, bottles and chemical tablets to treat the water before consuming: Here. The sky is blue again I cannot stop thinking of you.

Pealess plastic whistle for emergencies when somebody is lost, hurt or need help: Here. I am a little anxious about meeting you again.

Insect repellents and clothing: Here. I am now almost defeated by the urge to meet you again after so many decades, but I am still fighting against the fear of doing it....

Sunburn preventatives for withstanding the sun’s onslaught and lip-balm: Here. The sky is becoming grey again.

And last but not least: Common sense: Here, if I don’t think of you.

Generally, it is inexperience and also lack of good judgment that brings people into trouble in hiking tours; sometimes people have the right equipment but do not know how to use it. I can’t stop thinking of you in spite of a very busy life at the moment, where do l drive me?

Now I must go to bed because I have to leave Paris tomorrow by train very early to Montauban, our meeting point.

The train arrived to Montauban at the end of the day, driving me through a virtual and delicious land of magic I had last experienced at Hamburg.

We met all 8 girls at the train station as scheduled, well, my friends where already waiting for me because I was the last one to arrive. Marie had organized two cars for each four girls, having each one of us one day of duty for driving the car with the heaviest things to the next overnight station. Number four had to drive the car on arrival day to the hotel and on departure day back to the train station. Marie, of course, already set us for driving the second day, so we were going to have plenty of time for talking undisturbed the second day. Now we all drove at once to the hotel in Najac, the first place we were going to spend the night before the beginning of the hiking. It was a very old prieuré; we had the feeling there of coming backwards in the XIIth century and in the sunset it looked magical.

As I already mentioned our meeting and starting point was Montauban and from there we had to go by car to Najac, our first overnight station.

The planed itinerary for the first day of the tour was: From Najac to Cordes on the trail Les Gorges d’Aveyron. Been Cordes our second overnight station.

For the second day of the tour we planed to go from Cordes to Castelnau de Montmirail, our third overnight station.

And for the third day of the tour we planed to go from Castelnau de Montmirail to Puycelsi, our fourth overnight station.

Finally, our returning day should take us from Puycelsi to Montauban’s train station.

Well, the first night is always ladies’ talking accompanied by big efforts to bring into concordance the children images one had of each other with the advanced appearance of every one at the present time. We went early to bed because we knew the next day was going to be hard for many of us. The scheduled itinerary is as follows: For the first day, from Najac to Cordes, 22 kilometers, for the second day, from Cordes to Castelnau de Montmirail, 26 kilometers and for the third day, from Castelnau de Montmirail to Puycelsi, 24 kilometers.

On the first day of the tour we go from Najac to Cordes on the trail Les Gorges d’Aveyron, direction south along the river towards Cordes via Laguépie. We’ve just climbed a forest of hêtres (beech) and châtaigniers (chestnut). Sun is shining through big clouds. We are in Cordes. The name comes from Córdoba. I am in Spain this time. As if I needed that to think of you. The old houses are wonderful. I feel impressions of incredible beauty and immerse myself in a sea of magnificent landscapes. I experience grandiose and magnificent and breathtaking views in one of the best hidden tours in France. There is a stunning nature, energy-packed waters, and a powerful river and artistic ways along it.

At the beginning of springtime the nature is a pure beauty; walking through the woods, along small paths driving to old abbeys hidden in the middle of savage, hearing just the birds and the sound of the river is a happiness I had not felt for a very long time.

When you walk, you feel the country completely differently from a visit by car; you smell the earth, the grass, the leaves, you are penetrated by the soul of the place, as if real gods of Nature talked to you, came inside your body…

The second day of the tour, our driving day, takes us from Cordes to Castelnau de Montmirail, our third overnight station.

On our driving day Mary and I arrive to the next overnight station at 11:30 h, take the heavy luggage into the hotel and have lunch together. After lunch we go for a walk and Marie begins saying:

- Eve, you and your counterpart, you both belong to a land of magic where you exist above and apart from reality. I don’t know him but I know you both are possessed of each other and are protected by a set of wise and benevolent loas called Rada. They are opposite to the harsher, more malevolent group of spirits called Petro. I already told you about the 3 times 2 decades. Now you must know that 6 is a magic number. The first time you went apart for 2 decades, this happened in 1970. The second time you continued loving yourselves for a short time as if nothing had happened at the end of these 2 decades, that is to say after 20 years of your first union, which was indeed consummated in 1968, this happened in 1988. Then you went apart again, but this time sacrificing your love for the people you loved more or less. This is why you will come together one more time at the end of the second 2 decades, that is to say after 40 years of your first union, which was indeed consummated in 1968, this will happen now in 2008, and you both will live in a parallel world together with your normal world until you both become the real eternal lovers you are predestined. It may happen finally in the third 2 decades, that is to say after 60 years of your first union, which was indeed consummated in 1968,, this will happen in 2028. That is your destiny. The 40 years are almost over. You will meet him on his first saint’s day and just before his second saint’s day. So that will be the last evidence that tells you he is really your predestined counterpart.

- Marie, how comes that you now know so much about us. I never told you a word, and the first time we talked about this matter you were unsure.

- That is correct, Eve. It is just because I didn’t know anything about the eternal lovers. I first asked my father, self a houngan too, but he also had no self experience in this matter, although he knew of another houngan… and so I have been investigating for years and years in this matter until I found a houngan with direct experience in this field and who agreed on teaching me the truth about the eternal lovers. Now I feel sure in this exceptional matter and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Of course I had to present your case to my master and he explained me everything in detail and why I was not able to interpreter the signs in the right way.

- I still cannot believe that you know so much about Nick and me, yes his name is Nicolás Rubén. It is true, our friendship went apart in 1970, details are now not so important. In 1988 we met occasionally at a conference, he recognized me from behind, he said it was my neck, and yes, we continued loving us for a short time during the conference as if nothing had happened. Then we went apart because we didn’t want to interfere in each other’s life. I still think and dream of him.

- Indeed, you are going to come together in this year of 2008!

- Tell me it is not true, because I don’t think I will survive it! How is this going to happen?

- Eve, take it easy! You will contact him. He will suggest a certain date for meeting at any place in Europe and you will suggest a city you have never been before. And the date he mentions will include his saint’s day. In this case Nicolás is an easy task, you know Santa Claus, which means, you will meet him this year on December 6. His second saint’s day for Rubén is December 17. All parts fit together. And take it for granted, you will survive!

- Mon Dieu, Marie! I am afraid of meeting him!

-No, you are not afraid but only eager to meet him. Now you must tell me if I am right: You were pregnant, but you alone decided to abort the baby. You told him that after you did so. Is that right?

- My God, Marie, you scare me! How the hell can you know that? I never mentioned it to any one.

- That means it is true!

- Yes! And he was not happy at all.

- Of course, you only mistrusted him.

- Wait a minute, how do you know that?

- The loa told me that, Eve, I also know now that you married Antoine just for the audience and this never works, you knew that and that’s why you had a very active but empty sexual life with all your lovers,

- Come on, it is not fair to discuss such topics with a person with contacts off limits.

- In this case you did something wrong. Please accept it as it is and don’t argue or try to justify your doing. You still are something unique. On the other hand, you must know that children of love always come back again.

- I apologize, Marie. What do you mean with children of love always come back again?

- It means the soul of your child already came back again to your family. It explains the much love you feel and give to your grandson, always thinking of your Nick.

- I cannot believe it! I feel completely naked before your eyes. It is so true that upsets me!

- He was your first love, he is your only real love, and he is going to be your last love on earth. Your final destination is the pure spirituality. Is there anything else you want to ask or tell me?

- No, obviously you know all about me and I have no choice, but becoming with him eternal lovers, what a chance for me to devour him. It is a switchback for my feelings; I just go up and down. Am I allowed to tell him about our common destiny? What about the eternal lovers?

- Oh, yes, you can tell him every thing you know and every thing you want about the eternal lovers. It is imperative for you both to communicate with each other. Just remember, eternal lovers are two persons in one being. You will only really understand this at the time you reach that stage. There will be a transitional time, of course, but this won’t finally happen before 2028.

- What makes you so sure, Marie, we are going to be still alive? Is that the year when we will die, perhaps together, even if far from each other?

- That is the only thing I am not allowed to tell you, Eve. Now is me who apologize. Please trust me! In other words, wait and see! Eternal lovers don’t need instructions; they find the right way by themselves and they are always very close to each other when the other goes, you will see! The spiritual communication will be like the healthy phases in your illness getting shorter and shorter until you reach your time after time. You must search for the sacred; that means, search for what is extraordinary and brings you in the transcendent dimension.

Now we come to the hotel again before our group arrive. At last I am alone and free. The landscape is gorgeous, the small town charming and the house where I am having a bath deliciously decorated and comfortable. I dream of Nick and of our encounter this year, of us, of délice and délire. Sometimes there is something like the recognition of an identity, of a part of myself. I’m sure I’ll find the strength of a lion in order that everything happens as I hope and Marie said.

The third day of the tour takes us from Castelnau de Montmirail to Puycelsi, our fourth overnight station.

Puycelsi looks like a paradise in the sweet light of March. You are with me. This village has a delicious beauty.

I am already in bed. The last day of the tour was just 24 km as scheduled. This week has been most of the time very pleasant. I feel your presence so near, Nick. I will dream sweet. The words as I am thinking drive me in a land of magic where we exist above and apart from reality. Our love is ecstatic.

Our returning day takes us from Puycelsi to Monauban’s train station.

It was a delicious night in my dreams with you. At this morning I have a big breakfast and hope to have an easy way back daydreaming. We come to the station and still have plenty of time to say good bye to each other until the next time. Marie and I appoint us for the next week at her aunt’s place in Paris. Once in my couch I experience the mystery of the running train. I have delirious visions of you, Nick, and me, although not knowing how to contact you. And in between I have a strange dream: I was driving a car and wanted to go to Germany but it was impossible: no road, no bridge over the river; I had to dive with the car inside the river… and a voice was telling me; it’s OK you go on driving under the water and you will get off without any damage.

Now I have changed to the train to Paris, around me Italians! I love the music of their language. The train and loneliness begin their work: I feel I am near you and the movement leads me towards imaginative delicious sensations. I dream with madness and so much pleasure of you. This helps us to live our dreams, reassures us, if we had a doubt, that we are real eternal lovers. But what will be next?

Now I am back in Paris, I dive in my work, receptions, theatre, concerts… to forget what Marie had told me; my brain drives me now and can’t let primitive beliefs invade my thoughts.

Although I can’t help thinking of the past Marie brought back to me; and a deep pain grows inside me. How strange is life! How would it have been if I had carried the child until he was born? Would I have loved Nick all along these forty years? The strength and the eternity of love isn’t it due to youth? Wouldn’t have time worn it out?

What a marvel to be able to live again, as if it were new, the powerful, unique love we had!

The only problem is to manage together this life of heart and blood and the life of relationship, economy, profession… And for that, Marie is our help! She probably has a similar experience; she doesn’t need explanations, she knows how I feel, my anxieties, my ethic and at the same time, Marie is conscious of the powerful desire I have of him, of Nick; Marie knows that I can’t remain in my wise life, that I burn inside and need to meet him, that our flesh is one and can’t be separated too long.

Did she say, the spiritual communication will be like the healthy phases in an illness getting shorter and shorter until we reach our time after time, or did she say, the spiritual communication will be like the healthy phases in my illness getting shorter and shorter until we reach our time after time…?

Chapter 3: Analysis

- After our mutual release in 1988 I had both hands free for living the remaining time of my life although I didn’t know where I was in my way through life, at the beginning at the middle or almost at the end of it. Fact is I consumed my earth life with every breath and time was our most precious good on earth. And fact is too, regularly, I had highly intensive dreams of you, Eve. You were no more mine and I was no more yours, but in my dreams I was you and you were I, two personalities in one being. Now I know feelings are the most precious good in real life. Time is just a relative factor on earth life and we can move forth and back in this axle although we cannot intervene in the events but just monitor them.

- Well, I think we never really went apart even after the painful time I had alone. We had been so happy and suddenly our relationship was over.

- As you remember, our first meeting was on August 3, 1966, at a Tanzabend in the university. You were there inscribed for the Summer Course.

- Oh yes! I remember. After dancing with you I only felt merveilleux, exaltation. Next day we spent the afternoon together and it was for me bonheur et souffrance.

- Next day we had a walk along the Neckar and the Liederabend was wonderful with you.

- And on August 6 there was a dancing night at the international club after the castle fireworks.

- And not to forget the night walk back home.

- It was just bonheur for me.

- Next day we were together at my place. It was a delicious day.

-Yes, it was a journée délicieuse, indescriptible, incomparable aussi, mêlée de mystère. It was just the happiness of the perfect afternoon, don de soi et délices; jouissance.

- We were most of the time together, went dancing, to the movies…

- Schloss-Filmtheater at the Hauptstrasse, a few days before my exams. I don’t remember the name of the film any more.

- Then we had an intensive correspondence. I don’ know how many poems I wrote and sent you with almost each letter.

- Then I had the stupid car accident with my father on September 2.

- Your letter told me that you had a depressive state of mind at that moment. I wanted to be with you and I managed to arrive on September 10, early in the morning. Antonio, a pal from the university, gave me a ride on his way to Spain. I had two addresses to go and I selected the wrong one, at your grand mother’s place, well after talking to your brother Adam now I know it better, I came to your grand aunt’s place. Fortunately she received my letter for you and knew I must be your boyfriend. She called you, you were happy and your father was angry with you and ordered to get rid of me immediately.

- I had to find out the next train for you and bring you by bus to the train station. Your train left at 15:00h and I felt tristesse et vide à mourir…

- On 1968 we were a few times together: On March in London, on July in Heidelberg and in December in Chamonix.

- Indeed, it was a wonderful time for us.

- "I’ll try to tell you how I perceived the incidents at the time our relation went apart. Indeed it was beyond description to learn you were pregnant at that time, but it was a bigger shock for me to read you already had aborted the baby. It was not what I considered a partnership. I just felt like a background figure or some one playing a minor role or should I say playing no role