_Of trees, teddy bears and love in general_ I believe the people meet for special reasons, yet sometimes the circumstances of the meeting may not at all be what we expect. Of course, the more unusual the circumstances the more memorable it becomes. Some meetings seem odd, others even conical and most of the time, one does not recognizes its relevance to one’s life. Only years later do we finally realize that we wouldn’t have traded that moment with anything in the world. The first time I meet Keisha was in a playground near my home. I was ten and she was five and she carried with her a big, brown teddy bear named “Andrew”. Of course, like most boys of my age, I was interested in girls only as possible victims for my practical jokes. Teasing them to death, making them cry… well, that’s the spice of my life. Keisha was a pretty little thing but when I first saw her, she had dirt on her cheeks and her face was wet when crying. I shouldn’t have been concerned but hey, not all little boys are devils. So I walked up to her and said, “What’s the problem?” She looked at me with those wide, brown eyes and whispered,” Andrew’s in trouble.” Now, of course at the time I don’t have the fairest idea who in the world Andrew was. So I asked the obvious: “Who’s Andrew?” “My teddy bear.” I paused. What had I gotten myself into? But what the heck. “What happened to your bear?” I asked. Man, why can’t girls get right to the point? Keisha pointed to the guava tree a few feet beside us. “He’s up there.” Uh oh, I saw the stuffed animal wedged between the tree’s branches. “What’s he doing up there?” “He wanted to go there.” I wanted to strangle her. Patience Erto, patience. This is a girl. “OK,” I said “So what’s the problem?” She looked like she was about to cry again. “He wanted to get some guavas and now he can’t get down!” Then she burst into tears. Double uh oh. I pat her back, attempting to comfort her. “But how’d he get up there in the first place?” I asked, puzzled. “I helped him,” she answered which I interpreted to mean that she threw him up there. I sighed. Girls. So acting for once like the gentleman my mother wanted me to be, I gallantly volunteered to fetch her Andrew for her. Her smile was beautiful to see. It lit her whole face and made me feel like the sun rose and set with me. Charged with this feeling of heroism, I tackled the obstacle before me, climbed the guava tree, ignored the angry red ants crawling all over the branches to bite the invader., suffered the scratches as my tender skin scraped against twigs… all to asave an ill-disciplined bear who hadn’t enough sense to settle for piaya and coke instead of going after guavas. But save him I did and when I finally presented him to Keisha, her brown eyes were shinning with love for me. But maybe, that was just my imagination. “Thank you so much! Andrew says thank you too!” she said. “By the way, I’m Keisha.” I smiled back, though my knees were skinned and my arms were bitten by ants, I graciously replied “Oh, it was nothing. I’m Erto.” “Let’s go to my house,” Keisha suggested. “My mother is making fruit cocktail today.” I grinned. Maybe making friends with girls wasn’t so bad after all. And now, twelve years later, Keisha and I are more than friends. And though Andrew was relegated to only a place in her cabinet, he remains one of Keisha’s favorite toys. I don’t pretend that I understand girls any better than I did when I first met Keisha. I honestly don’t. They’re finicky, critical and they see hidden meanings to what you say when you didn’t actually mean anything. But they’re also sweet and caring when they’re in good mood. I met lots of other girls after Keisha but only that meeting with her made a difference in my life. I guess it’s up to everyone to distinguish which moments to pass by and which ones to treasure. I’m not saying that this will be easy. I’ve probably passed more opportunities than I’ve recognized. But I try. But in love, only time will tell. After all these years, I still smile whenever I remember what transpired the day after I rescued Andrew. I was back in the playground and no sooner had I arrived did I see Keisha running towards me shouting, “Erto! Erto! Andrew’s stuck in the tree again!” Girls. Somehow I get the feeling she did it in purpose.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 01:26:12 +0000
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