indis

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(photo by: J.E. Restrepo)

her mother likes sitting in front of the TV set—watching the ending of movies with the names/texts walking by. she likes things that seem to end but they actually don’t. Vivian is a keen cook. She fell in-love with a young man who wrote for the school paper —then eventually became her husband. At 18, she taught Kristine how to write the first five letters of the alphabet. ABCDE. Kristine had a hard time writing the letter B.later in life, that particular letter would stand out for she redundantly uses it now in words she’s nearly-addicted to such as: beautiful, beginnings, blowing bubble, blurs, been  and ben.

In 1999 (29th of November), Vivian gave birth to Kyla. At 1 year old, the little girl has exhibited reading prowess. At 10, she plays the guitar in such a way that her nose grows bigger than its regular size, her lips shiver a bit and her fingers tango blindly. Kyla has the knack in mixing and matching clothes. She does not do it on purpose but it sometimes appears that she does.  Kristine reminds her to pay attention to guitar-playing because she’s paying for every session. It’s a sort of emotional blackmail. Kristine hates emotional blackmailing. She even told Jaime that she could have been somewhere else if not for these false attachments she has (bonds that have been developed and stiffened by time, tears and saltwater).

Jaime is Colombian. His grandfather owns a coffee farm where Jaime used to spend his younger days lying on the fields and dreaming about galleons and galaxies. He moved to Florida at 14 and took Arts as his major. He likes eating barquillos without having to break their thin bodies. He takes each piece slowly from the plastic. He does that because of his fear of failing architecture. Jaime will never forget the day when he came out of the closet and told his mother about it. His mother is a teacher. She is volatile and spontaneous and she actually loved bringing them to swimming pools when they (him and his sister) were younger.Jaime thinks she did that for the therapeutic effect. Today, Jaime challenges buoyancy. Kristine thinks it has something to do with his childhood and the feeling he got when he closed his eyes at the belly of the waters. He takes polaroids of random surprised people and spontaneous captures of umbrellas.

Jaime and Kristine met one day. they have shared long walks and talks. for days, they walk while they talk. in lazy times, they pretended to walk while they talk.  Jaime reminds her to chase her dreams just like how someone chased his and found her one day. He told her that he wants to move to Canada in the near future but before that, he still would love to go home (Colombia) then probably,visit Italy. He is not sure if Italy can make him feel at home too. Maybe, yes. He is sure though that he wants to breathe art daily–take it in like sweat, shower of the sun and age. He announces that more than anything else, he is happy to be a citizen of the world,gay and just- himself.

Kristine spent two days just in her bedroom with a bottle of water a week ago. She likes old things: all the tiny possessions that people have given her. She likes reading old messages to swallow the moment when that person thought about her (while writing) and the same day the person forgot about her (&stopped writing). She cries when little kids sing so well on TV. She cries when she remembers emotional heights trapped in short time frames. She laughs with her self a lot but loves laughing with  someone else beside her. She finds it difficult to get her poetry published but she is finally starting to scribble her own aims raw and real through her soul and soles. 

 On the 27th,he’s leaving for more stories upnorth. She’s visiting the jump-off point of some changes in her life.Perhaps, they’d keep their plan of visiting Brazil. Maybe, they’ll keep writing and she’d still be talking about love and how mornings turn colder. but he will remind her about how life leads you to places and people that can reflect how beautiful you are…

if and only if you chase your dreams and free them with faith.

fate crumbles.

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