Drunken Love - Que Son (sites to read books for free .txt) 📗

him and she said that she was still thinking about his proposal. Even though she was playing the delaying game with David, her intuition told her that he was the man who would become her husband, not the missing Adam. She and David talked on the phone almost daily.

 

One night, she was terrified by a dream in which she saw she was raped again but this time not by the pirates, but the rapist was her own brother, the one she was living with. Cold sweat drenched her after the nightmare and because she strongly believed in dreams which for her were foretelling of things to come, she thought she must get out of the place. Two days after the nightmare, her brother came home and she could not bear to look at him. And when the lights went out at night, she tried to keep her eyes open, alert of any unusual movements from the direction of her brother's bed which was only fifteen feet away in the same room. The next day she called David and told him she was going to join him. He sent her a plane ticket. And one week after the nightmare, she was on an airplane to San Jose. David mat her at the airport and took her to an apartment he had rented just days before--and they started living together. At this point, Eve felt that living together with a man without marriage was not such a big deal, she had been through worse; besides, she was not in Viet Nam, her parents were not around. And besides, where would she live if not with David, the only person she knew in this strange land? Eve liked this city better because the weather was not too cold, and there were a lot of people like her who spoke the same language. David showed his concern for her, cared about her, and they agreed that when they had made enough money, they would get married. Eve had then found a job at a factory where David was working. Done deal for Eve, she had decided to marry David, because she needed a man for protection. And the hell with Adam, wherever he was. She wrote home to tell her parents about David and her intention to marry him but did not tell them that she was living and fucking with him.

 

Shakespeare continues to sit at the table while outside the winter storm continues to rage. He finishes the pitcher and ordered another one. He has not drunk this much at one time for a long time; but tonight is a night like no others. Shakespeare has been completely taken over by the story he is constructing in his mind and he is determined to finish it before daylight. The tavern will be closed at 2, so it is only an hour before he has to walk out. He feels that his mind is now boundless and his mood exuberant, and the creative juice is flowing like lava. But at the same time he feels dismayed, almost to the point of desperation, because as he continues to sketch the events, he becomes increasingly convinced that a happy conclusion to the story is impossible. There are obstacles to the characters’ happiness, obstacles that seem trivia but actually formidable. Both Adam and Eve are deeply trapped in their own situations. There are choices, of course, but none looks too promising. At this point in the story, Eve had set foot in the US, but she had no intention to look for Adam. That is a cold fact. And Adam was under the water, no one could detect him, his whereabouts was unknown.

 

Shakespeare takes another long drag from the pitcher, this time not bother to use the glass. And a thought hit him: There will be no happy resolution to the story. It will end on a low note, but in what form? There is no clear answer yet. Is there a happy ending to anything at all? Shakespeare smacks his lips as he ponders. Things end in death and destruction one way or another. All. That was why the plays he wrote while alive in Medieval England all ended in deaths of the characters. He understood the truth then; and this time, the truth is still the same but Shakespeare feels revolted against it. Love affairs rarely end in happiness, if ever. What happened to Romeo and Juliet might happen to Adam and Eve, but it could be different if they decided to revolt against their circumstances, but that remained to be seen because it is still too far in the future. At this time both were trying to survive in the new homeland. Eve had erased from her heart the longing for a union with Adam because she had been involved with David and she had even let him fuck her while they were in the camp together, something that she was not proud of. The first time she let him fuck her, she had to cover her face because of shame. Adam had retreated further and further into a far corner of her mind. She regretted the loss of a love, the wasted years waiting for him, but circumstances demanded that she forget the past and move on. The two years since the escape had taught her to become a practical and even callous woman, learning to stay alive amid adverse circumstances.

 

And at this point, Shakespeare feels sick to his stomach. He has reached the point where the characters have to make hard choices that further widen the rift between them. And he feels even more sick when he thinks about the way Eve conducted herself while in the camp. Shakespeare understands that circumstances do play a role in her behavior; she was traumatized by the experience at sea, among others, but as far as her love and relationship with Adam is concerned, she is behaving more and more like a betrayer. While in the camp, she had chances to look for Adam and reunite with him, but did not do so. She argued that it was her hurt pride--Adam's last letter rejecting her--and what happened to her on the sea were the two reasons that prevented her from looking for him. Shakespeare thinks that Eve was wrong not looking for Adam. Despite what her reasons were.

 

The other patron wobbles to the juke box and plays Sade's "Stronger than Pride." In the silence of the almost empty tavern and in the semi-darkness, Sade's silky voice dances like smoke streaks in the air. “Love is stronger than pride,” she sings. And suddenly Shakespeare bursts out laughing and his laughter turns the head of the bartender who glances at him curiously. With the mood he is in, every word of the lyrics, carried by the seductive voice and the melody, hits him with more meaning now than ever. "Love is stronger than pride?" Shakespeare mumbles, "Not always. Not with this woman." And he feels sorry for Adam, who was living a lonely life while his lover was fucking with another man. Adam did not know Eve was now in the same country with him but had no interest in a reunion with him. Shakespeare feels like shit. The woman was a betrayer.

 

After arriving in the US, Adam lived with his friend in Houston for six months then moved to Philadelphia. He found work, registered for college but never went, made new friends, got drunk and high. It was during this time that he wrote the last letter to Eve telling her to forget about him. Then he got into trouble, a fight that resulted in serious injuries to another person, and had to flee to Georgia. He lived there for a year, working in a chicken factory. Then after a year in Georgia, he moved back to Philadelphia, again living the same kind of life: working to make a living and getting high. He thought less and less about Eve and also stopped writing to his family. Then he moved again, this time to New York. And years went by.

 

He was living in New York the time Eve arrived in America. The irony was she landed in New York too. So for a month before she left for San Jose they were no more than ten miles apart--even less. They might even have rode the same train once or twice. At that time, Adam was working in a warehouse and continued to burn his days in weed smoke and soak his nights in alcohol. He did not think about doing something for his future, all he did was working to make a living. And saving nothing. His thinking was short term. The thoughts about Eve sometimes crossed his mind, but never stayed for long. She must be now married with children back in the old country, he believed, and felt a little bit regretful because he knew he still loved her. It was the first love of his life.

 

Meanwhile in San Jose Eve was busy working to save money for her wedding with David. She was also filing papers with immigration to bring her parents over. In New York, Adam started going to college and working on a variety of odd jobs. He moved from one apartment to another, never stayed in one place for long. He still did not write to his family, the thought never occurred to him, he was too busy living. New York was an exciting city and the opportunity for fun and entertainment were endless and Adam enjoyed them with all the strength and enthusiasm of his youth. He went to night clubs three times a week, getting high with the crowds, hung out with thrill seekers in Greenwich Village. And he also painted a lot during this time, it was his habit since a child; and he also started to write journals again.

 

For a time during this period, Adam shared an apartment with a couple. This couple had a fourteen year old girl, and he fell in love with this girl. It might be love or it might just be infatuation, some kind of attraction. Of course, the whatever-it-is was all one way, the girl was still too young to understand the special feeling he had for her. What made Adam fell attracted to this girl/child was her angelic innocence, her playfulness and naivety, her chubby little face, her birdlike voice. It was her youth and innocence that fascinated him. He bought her candies and ice cream, and helped her with homework. Every time she was near him with laughter and the display of innocence, he felt happy, very happy. At work during the day, he thought about her, the child, and longed for the day to end so he could go home and see her. One afternoon while he was in the kitchen cooking a meal, the girl ran to him and lift her t-shirt and showed him the bra she was wearing and said that her mother had just bought it for her and from now on she got to wear this. Stunned, he looked at the white thin straps that ran around her back and chest and up her shoulders. And as she turned, he saw her breasts, two little budding lumps of skin and flesh hugged by the two cups of the bra. And while he was speechless, the child smiled her big bright smile and asked him is it beautiful and he tremblingly said yes it is. Then she dropped her shirt, and ran out of the kitchen. Adam stood still, baffled, but intensely happy. During the time he was in that apartment, he painted a picture that depicted two hands open up like a lotus and raise to a blue sky and hover above the hands were a pair of red lips, a heart, and a flower. It was a beautiful painting, Adam thought, it expressed his feeling for the girl at that time.