Talk thirty nine.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 06th March
- The views from the route from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Santa Fé[3], the capital of New Mexico, were equally impressive as the Canyon itself.
- A little depressing were, unfortunately, camps (villages?) of the Indians, which looked like slums.
- But Santa Fé itself charmed me with its colours of ochre, yellow, beige, and brown.
- These are the colours of plaster, which once came from precious natural clay dried in the sun, and now they are their artificial equivalents.
- The uniformity of the architectural style is really fantastic. Unprecedented in the United States. I have the impression that the houses were built of sand and someone then poured water over them. They got such a rounded shapes.
- In the end you visited the museum of your favourite painter - Georgia O'Keeffe[4].
- I’ve long been fascinated by her paintings, and now I got to know about her interesting life.
- She was a lucky woman, she could sell her paintings during her lifetime.
- That’s why there aren’t that many paintings in the museum. I wish we hadn’t been in Santa Fé on a Sunday. I don’t like Sunday cities. Empty and sluggish. I prefer a busy life in the streets, stores, and restaurants. But the colours of the city will persist under the eyelids forever.
- I prefer Albuquerque, because it is the largest city and main industrial centre of the state.
- You liked it, because, as advertised, there was a good gay club which proved to be quite interesting. Although it was very difficult to find.
- Drinks were very cheap and the crowd nice and friendly. I must add here that we didn’t meet anyone in New Mexico through my on-line contacts, because the Americans aren’t interested in contacts we look for. The local gay men are far more specific in their needs .
- For me the behaviour of young people in the streets on that Friday night, was phenomenal.
- What can teenagers do without big money, having only at their disposal their parent’s vehicles, mainly pick-up vans?
- They drive very slowly in circles along the only main shopping street of the city, causing constant traffic jams. At midnight! At first, I couldn’t understand the phenomenon. Such a traffic at night!
- Young people were sitting in groups in the streets next to their vehicles.
- Our teenagers do the same. It's just that they don’t have cars.
- Why did we go to the river Rio Grande?
- Because it is the river that appeared in many western films. The Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo. The Westerns in the cinema means my youth. Sentiments!
- I didn’t catch any of them The new ones are not my glass of coca-cola.
- Correction: not your cup of tea!
- I don’t drink tea!
- So, now listen about the river. It has a length of 2896 km. The sources are located in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. In the upper part the river flows south across the state of New Mexico. Then it turns to the south-east around the city of El Paso, Texas. For the next 2000 km of its course, up to the point where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande marks the border between the United States and Mexico.
- Everything in America is the largest, longest, and the best.
- Not necessarily the best. In Russia, they think alike.
- About America?
- No. About themselves.
- We all think better and warmer than we should about ourselves.
- What? Are we the best, the most beautiful and in general the most …?
- No exaggeration here, please. However, we tend to whiten ourselves and show ourselves in a better light than the reality shows.
- You have someone particular in mind, don’t you? Or a specific situation?
- Sure. All that what happening around me since I arrived in PROGRESS. Actually I have the friends of yours in mind.
- After all, they didn’t eat you up. At first, I didn’t notice any hostility. Although, I was a bit surprised by little enthusiasm they received you with, not as a PROGRESS employee, but as my partner.
- Maybe the reasons can be explained later on in our conversation, because I think we need to discuss a few important issues.
- As, for example, our trip to Bydgoszcz.
- Janusz surprised me with his phone inviting me to join you two in a trip to Bydgoszcz for a weekend to meet a couple of his friends. I was then still working in Gorzow.
- I was very happy that you agreed to go.
- I thought it was worth re-running our train (express?). It might take us in the right direction. Without any haste.
- There was a question nagging me: how long I would have to wait for you till you feel that you want to be with me.
- It was when I realized that you were allowing me to gradually build the feeling to you. I knew you were full of doubts and fears, and at the same time I began to calm down…
- Quite unexpectedly, 10th February, 2000 you declared that you were already prepared to be together with me! Our friends in Bydgoszcz, by accident, became witnessing of the beginning of our new life.
- The calm, of which I spoke, I felt realizing that no one except you, no longer occupies my thoughts. Although I still didn’t tell you about it, I knew that I loved you.
- After that came the most beautiful St. Valentine's Day, which ever happened in my life. There was dinner at home in Szczecin, were we announced to our friends that from that day on we were together.
- I didn’t see any joy in their faces.
- Today, I look at it differently. Then it seemed to me that I saw some concern in their faces whether it could succeed or whether I wasn’t making another mistake which I would regret.
- Did they ask you any questions? Did they warn you against the danger or risk? Did they comment what threat I could be for you?
- I do not recall any sharp, unequivocal statements. To those mild ones I always reacted the same way. I told them that I feared nothing, I regretted nothing. I also told them that I was going to appreciate each year spent with you and considered it as a great luck that met me.
- Till the end of June I commuted to Szczecin at weekends and in July I moved there for good.
- At that time two girls were employed at PROGRESS to attend the customers. Alek worked as an accountant and we needed you to work on all positions, especially for servicing the school technically and building our computer network.
- With full enthusiasm I started the work and did whatever I had to do there, but from the very beginning I did not get any support from the colleagues.
- I must’ve been be pretty blind, because then I did not notice anything, and you weren’t complaining. You didn’t want to rat on them, did you?
[1] Santa Fe New Mexico
[2] Georgia O’Keeffe
[3] Santa Fe, New Mexico
[4] Georgia O’Keeffe
