"But. No. ..you paid money for this stuff. Why should we leave it here" my husband flings shampoo, various lotions, my new green tea perfume into his bag as he speaks. "Yes, but, darling, I will feel like a quasi criminal at security. No liquids, you know". "Huh. It's SHAMPOO. And I'm putting your perfume in my spare shoes"??? ".Um right, if you think so, " I offer into his mutterings about waste, idiotic rules having spawned an industry to apply, causing massive irritation and inconvenience, and being besides, useless, pointless, AND ineffective as a preventative measure, etcetera etcetera etcetera. I wonder if the divine sun's heat has gone to his dear head.
Later I balance on one leg replacing shoes, belt, dignity even, and wonder where he is. I notice that my socks are mismatched just as he bounces over flushed, triumphant. "Yea, yea, stopped, my bag lit up like a starry night, interviewed by the head man, so yeah, shampoo gone, sorry, BUT perfume salvaged". "How?" " Just did. There was an exchange mano a mano, him and me, said it was the wife's, said other stuff, he got it" . Hmmm. I look back at a young girl, pink faced as she is barked at to remove her pretty boots, the back up of edgy sweating travellers behind her. I think of how hard it is to hold your ground on the planet without your shoes. I grab my hero tight to myself and we make for the plane.
The same sun shines the whole way home in the airport bus, brilliant, clear, fifteen degrees colder. It will be gone, our week, in a flash, he told me seven days before, as the bus rumbled the other way at dawn. "Shut up ", I say "not the point, but to have it, suck it dry, eat it whole.
And now we are fat with it. Bursting. The citrus infused, seductive sweet smell of the orange blossoms; the warmth seeping into our chilly northern bones; the soundtrack of birdsong piercing, poignant; the kindness of swaying sheltering trees.; the food eaten out of doors, post prandial sherries in an impossibly exotic old world wine bar; my weeping helpless, surrendered by the walls of the Alcazar after a falling out as to its whereabouts, his white pained face as appalled as mine; lying in the hotel room listening to the rain slapping on the tiled court yard, mindless, entangled; the smell of the orange blossoms the smell of the orange blossoms the smell of the orange blossoms.
Later I balance on one leg replacing shoes, belt, dignity even, and wonder where he is. I notice that my socks are mismatched just as he bounces over flushed, triumphant. "Yea, yea, stopped, my bag lit up like a starry night, interviewed by the head man, so yeah, shampoo gone, sorry, BUT perfume salvaged". "How?" " Just did. There was an exchange mano a mano, him and me, said it was the wife's, said other stuff, he got it" . Hmmm. I look back at a young girl, pink faced as she is barked at to remove her pretty boots, the back up of edgy sweating travellers behind her. I think of how hard it is to hold your ground on the planet without your shoes. I grab my hero tight to myself and we make for the plane.
The same sun shines the whole way home in the airport bus, brilliant, clear, fifteen degrees colder. It will be gone, our week, in a flash, he told me seven days before, as the bus rumbled the other way at dawn. "Shut up ", I say "not the point, but to have it, suck it dry, eat it whole.
And now we are fat with it. Bursting. The citrus infused, seductive sweet smell of the orange blossoms; the warmth seeping into our chilly northern bones; the soundtrack of birdsong piercing, poignant; the kindness of swaying sheltering trees.; the food eaten out of doors, post prandial sherries in an impossibly exotic old world wine bar; my weeping helpless, surrendered by the walls of the Alcazar after a falling out as to its whereabouts, his white pained face as appalled as mine; lying in the hotel room listening to the rain slapping on the tiled court yard, mindless, entangled; the smell of the orange blossoms the smell of the orange blossoms the smell of the orange blossoms.
No comments:
Post a Comment