13.2 Arena Roja

The blue gate of Ferris Wheel opened and Sophie stepped out wearing a falda and a white sleeveless blouse with her tits sandwiched in the tight buttoned up bodice. A falda is a square piece of a black wrap and usually worn without a bodice. It is wrapped with the split to the rear over the left buttock. It is a traditional wear.

I stubbed the cigarette on the ground and turned to fetch my bike. She climbed with both of her legs to the left, mainly to tolerate with that falda, I guess.

“Where do we go?” I uttered.

“Just a ride around town,” she replied.

I climbed Carrera 4 from Kamana Boulevard. At this point we saw the advertisement board completed. It was a huge board about thirty feet in height and twenty feet in breadth displaying the Titanic ship and the cast; Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. At that juncture, it never occurred to me in my mind of the fact they were going to premier the film. This movie has been premiered in other parts of the world long time ago.

“When is the movie premiering?” I asked but we already passed the board.

“On the Third after the New Year.” I felt a heavy hand drop on my crotch and in warm contact.

“What is your plan for the New Year?”

“I don’t have a plan,” she said, “I am thinking to spend my time with Gabi and my daughter.”

“Where?”

“At Sunrise Villa.”

I tried to turn to look into her face but I didn’t.

I crossed Calle 17 and climbed Carrera 1, cruised a kilometre to a fishing marina by the coast. Fishing nets, single-cabin boats and black faldas hanging on lines in the rays of an unseen sun. A lazy wind touched my crown in the cool. There were flocks of cumulus cloud gathered in the sky with grey shades in the bottom.

I slowed down and Sophie suggested, “Let’s go to the Azul!”

I turned to Calle 6 from there that would mean we turned inland cutting off the Hook of Caba and Salt Waters where Sunrise Villa was located. I took Carrera 6 to Calle 1, the Beach Road, a narrow lane and often traffic not allowed. At this point in the waterfront stood the vast premise of Pedazo del Cielo: the grand hospital. It was an epic landmark with its red roofs. I crossed the lane and climbed the beach on my motorbike.

“Not a ripple on the shore!” cried Sophie Nadz.

“There is no wind on this side,” I observed. It was cool and calm. Nothing stirred. I listened to dead silence, not a soul in sight. “Where have the people gone?” I was shocked. Sand turned red in the replenished glow. I heard splashes and bubbles of fish in the crystal-clear water.

“I think Mayor Brando has closed the beach.”

“You are right.”

“Let’s have a peek at the ship! Is it possible?”

“Yeah!” I kicked from the beach. I felt a cool air as I rode on Carrera 10 towards Valderrama Well to climb Swamp Road. Soon, I was heading to the dunes.

I crossed Avenida Medio and climbed the dune assuming the point of the wreck and bounced over hedge grass to the top of the Muro.

The ship lay in quarter mile distance right in the eye. I noticed a couple of four-wheels moving beneath its hull. Those experts arrived but to my knowledge nothing was done to tamper the ship in fear of radiation leak. So far islanders were in the clear with a certain Sievert level remaining normal. Who said that?

She was saying, “Some experts arrived and they issued a defence readiness to DEFCON 4 and I heard later it was downgraded to DEFCON 5 to a normal readiness. This whole thing still remains a mystery.”

“What are they doing down there?” I enquired.

“They are studying radiation levels, how it ended up there, damages to the environment and how to salvage the ship.”

“Let’s get down!” We jumped down from the bike and sat down on the slope to observe the ship. Definitely I felt a cool breeze on this side of the coast. It was pretty cold out here. “What happened to the crew?” I saw some of those pineapples and pumpkins thrown over here.

“Presumed dead.”

A crack in the clouds opened the sky in magenta red over the western horizon. It was sunset and it would remain so into the night. Arena Roja appeared in a deep reddish-brown. We sat there, resting against each other, folding arms to keep from the cold with fingers dug into flesh.

“Are you going to watch the movie?” I asked.

“Yeah, we talked about that at school. Some staff wish to go and I’m looking forward to joining them.”

“Weather is looking to get better.”

“I hope so. Hilly High girls will perform dip in la luna del encanto…”

“Noche de hechizo!”

Sophie chuckled, “On the night of bewitchment, womenfolk dip in water on bare skin and the girls from Hilly Side High get down in Nativa.”

“It’s a long way!” I uttered thoughtlessly.

“I know,” she expressed, “Isn’t it something only you among the old boys help occasionally picking flowers from Maldivia Gardens!”

I felt ashamed, “Don’t call me ‘old boy’. I did not go to Hilly Side High, you know. I do this for Lady Marissa. I just do it,” I told her, “Old boys left a long time ago for further studies and work abroad. I miss them.”

“You are quite frank with those girls. How about this new girl you are dating?”

“Nizu?” I shrank, “If you put it that way, Sophie, I only give them affection. I may be close like this to the girls but the relationship is different. They are virgins.”

“Virgins!” she giggled, “I don’t think so,” and she told me a secret, “I have slept with boys from Hilly High.”

I glanced, “Really!”

“My age guys are gone. We have a bunch of very old folks and fishermen on the island. Then you find all those addicted teenagers and very few kids.”

“So, you miss someone!”

“A lot and mostly, I miss my parents.”

“Where do you come from?”

“I was born in California for Lebanese parents. Don’t you remember my mother?”

“I do,” I inspirationally thought to bring up the subject, “Now you have a big house at Sunrise Villa.”

“Sixty rooms and a Jacuzzi on the top floor.”

She was having that property alright and I was just about to ask what we did there two weeks ago. “You told me that Shalin did the planning.”

“Yes, she did.”

“Do you know that Shalin who vacated my place last night and passed you the keys?”

I glanced at her and I saw a red face popping out of the white blouse. A brick red face of a gargoyle with little red fangs and horns on the crown. In a split second it was gone and Sophie smiled back at me with a little reddish facial tone.

“Sabo passed the keys to me. Are you alright?”