THE SECOND PART

City break

Part two

“Please take the sun away from my face” Ras said with his right eye still closed and the left, half- opened. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning but Ras was used to get up at noon on Sundays. That morning not only he got up very early but a girl dressed with an old T- shirt of his, had already painted one of the dingy yellow walls of his bedroom, light green.
Lilly and he, had already spent one month together, mostly talking and visiting different places in the city but this was the very first weekend they had stayed together. The night before they had made love for the first time; a night they both were waiting for since that afternoon they met each other, when Ras crossed the door of “Napolitano”.
They were having a great time together, one could say unexpectedly good time, though neither Ras nor Lilly was seeing their relationship as a serious commitment; not even a date. They both had honestly made clear from the beginning that due to many reasons, they could never be a proper couple. Ras claimed job worries and family matters- nothing of these was true- he was just afraid to link his life with another person’s after the traumatic split up he went through from his last long term relationship, even though this was almost one year behind him and Lilly claimed the independence of her nature. That was something Ras could discern in every move of hers but he was fine with that, not say convenient.
Lilly was a shot in the arm for Ras’ mood for doing things again after the long time he went through with his focus round upon more self- centered and unrelated with other people goings on (commonly, he had a hard time overcoming his past relationship and in general he was trying to redefine and reassess his goals and the path he was following in life) and Lilly had found someone who felt like he was in need of her constant presence. Because that was Lilly all about. Subconsciously or not, she was always finding people to associate with, who were either in need of a shelter or in search of some kind of protection and she was open-handedly, providing them with exactly what they were hankering. Maybe that’s why that morning she was changing the color in Ras’ bedroom walls without telling him anything first. She literally and metaphorically wanted to create a brighter environment, from the one he was living in. To tell the truth, Ras was taken a little aback by that gesture of hers but he neither misunderstood her nor considered that she was getting into fields she wasn’t allowed to. Within that whole month, there were many times she had surprised him nicely, that this was not making any strange sense anymore.
The first thing that had impressed Ras about Lilly Elli, even this might sound odd, was that she was sharing the same passion with him about the movies from the back 40s and 50s. She was even fond of the classic western films in which there is always a macho guy, wearing extraordinarily tight trousers and the characteristic hat on his head, riding a horse and firing the villains just outside the local bar or the hidden ones behind the cactuses and the dried bushes. More surprisingly was that she, as Ras, believed that these films were loosing all of their magic in the new generation plasma TV screens.
Apart from that, Ras caught himself being intrigued and stunned many of the initial times they had hanged out outdoors. One day Lilly challenged him to use the elevator while they were spending time in one of the innumerous city’s malls, after the second he mentioned that he was probably claustrophobic. And he said “probably” because he had never got into an occasion that he could find it out, excluding the time he was very young and got locked up by his big brother in the closet for a few minutes and the only he remembers is himself yelling and panting hard, but ever since he was trying to avoid as much as he could, to be in places that could potentially give him the same sense. That afternoon they ascended eight floors with Ras turning pale, but the view, that Lilly seemed like that had faced again, left him speechless. The people and the cars and everything else Ras could see from up there, the top of the building, seemed like ants and the whole city seemed like an ant’s tiny society. For a minute, Ras had an unprecedented feeling of sheer supremacy.
Even though that braveness she had forced him one or two more times to embrace was a natural trait of Lilly’s, Ras hadn’t discerned it from the very first moment. Taking in mind her elegant characteristics, someone would rather describe her as a fragile and delicate woman than a fearless spirit. In any case, her perception about how someone could overcome a fear of his or a callousness, was different from the majority of the people and maybe some could tell that she was, if not bizarre, definitely unlike from the most of the girls of the same age.
Laying there in that bed, that Sunday morning and seeing the girl with the young and well- shaped body wearing only, one of his old shirts as painting his walls in a bright color, wasn’t to make him feel awkward. He just thought he was lucky to have met her. Lilly as if had read his mind, turned to his way and gave him the same every time smile. She moved towards the bed and sealed his lips with her own. “Get up sleepy” she obliged him playfully. Ras moved to kiss her once more but instead, he got a green stain from the brush she was holding, on the top of his nose. Lilly laughed with all of her heart, as the spectacle of the prematurely awaken Ras, with his nose painted green, seemed pretty funny right that moment. Before she even realize it, she got even more stained too and not only in her nose, when Ras got her into his arms and leaded her under the sheets with the oil-color imputed brush, still on her hand.
At afternoon Lilly had her short backpack with all of her stuff in it and even though Ras begged her one million times to stay, she acted as they already had arranged from Friday. They had agreed that she would only stay over during weekend and not a minute further than that. Because even this little variation, was way too big step for the peculiar relationship they had. For a month they were doing all the things friends or couples do and the previous night did only what lovers do, but still they were both acting like they hadn’t unlocked their selves completely to each other. It must had been almost cruel, two people to match so perfectly but still to be afraid to admit it or most likely to pretend like totally ignoring it.
On his doorway, they settled to meet at “Napolitano” the next day after 6:00 o’clock that he would be off of work and could wait for her as she would be doing the shift ‘till 9:00. After that they would go and see a movie or something, but this was still too early to be specified.
That Sunday night, when Ras was alone again, he suffered a sleeping problem. He woke up many times during the hours he was supposed to enjoy his comfortable bed with the smell of Lilly’s perfume still on the covers and the pillows, since the same odd dream was coming over again and again. Neither the new face of his formerly dull bedroom had proved powerful to change that. Although his room had turned into a brighter and more beautiful place, where someone could only dream of waterfalls and beaches with palm-trees in it, he just couldn’t help but having the same awful dream each time he was closing his eyes. That night he dreamt that he was walking with Lilly side by side, going probably for something joyful to do- a dinner in a fancy restaurant or a in a gallery- because as he could recall, he was wearing the brand new coat they had bought together for formal and special occasions some day between the passed week and she, was wearing an ethereal dress in the color of ice he had never seen her wearing it before in the real life and each time he would turn to see her face, she was every time getting more and more older. She was remaining the same smiley and with the same warmth in her eyes but her skin was becoming unnaturally wrinkled as if years were conquering her with every step she was taken.
The hours until the dawn to come, passed terrifyingly slow for Ras- that’s how it seemed at least- and while being at the office, he was counting the minutes to cross the door of “Napolitano” and see that Lilly was absolutely ok and he was just a fool to worry just because of that stupid dream he had.
At 6:00 at the dot, he was outside “Napolitano” but when he got in, the owner told him that Lilly had submitted her resignation very early at that same morning. Ras asked for information but the fat man with the blue apron with the name “Napolitano” pricked on it, didn’t have any. He was muddled by the resignation also and he actually asked Ras if he knew any of the reasons that could make Lilly leave, since she hadn’t said anything to him either.
Ras thought that he should probably dial her cell-phone number from his own mobile; he was already holding it in his hands, though he hadn’t done that neither once during the entire duration of the month they were hanging out. They had agreed that only in case of emergency they should call each other. This was one of the many untold rules they were firmly following for not getting too close. Not getting too couple-y. Each time they were going somewhere or they were just together, they were arranging the next one in order not to have to use their phones. For that afternoon they had made plans too but Lilly was mysteriously absent.