As you may have noticed in my previous post, I used Carlos's first and last name. Normally, I'll use first names only, but used both for Carlos for the following reasons:
1) I have only nice things to say about him.
2) Carlos Garcia is Hispanic for Joe Smith, and there's a lot of those.
Now, back to our story. Last we spoke, Carlos rode back to Brooklyn with me, and we said goodnight. Just a few hours later, Laura and I were on a plane back to Cincinnati. We had been in NYC for a week, and I met Carlos on our last full day there. Welcome to my world, that's how it works.
Carlos and I talked on the phone everyday for three months, and that was before cell phones. Our phone bills were ginormous. Carlos also wrote letters, old school. I've been looking for them for two days, and know they're here somewhere. What I did find was a picture of Carlos and me. I will post the picture as well, I just need to scan it in.
After about three months of phone calls and letters, Carlos flew to Cincinnati. Carlos had never been out of NYC in his entire life. Odd as it may seem, I know of another New Yorker who also hasn't. When I picked him up from CVG, he had a teddy bear named Mr. Pennington, who wore black rimmed eye glasses and a white collar with tie. Mr. Pennington, now 20ish years old, sits to this very day on the mantle in my bedroom.
At the time, I was living in Clifton near the corner of Vine and McMillian. My apartment consisted of one large room, a small kitchen, and two bathrooms. Yes, two bathrooms. I always think of it as my Mary Tyler Moore apartment It had natural wood floors, a fireplace with Rookwood tiles, and the toilet in one room, and a huge lion claw bathtub in the other.
So, one day while I'm at work, Carlos decides to take a walk to check out the city and see if he would ever want to live here. He had never driven or owned a car, which is the case with a lot of native New Yorkers. When I came home, he informed me that it only took an hour before he ran out of city. He also didn't understand where all the Hispanics were, and why was 300 Chinese restaurants Cincinnati's idea of ethnic food. It was after that walk that Carlos knew he could never be happy living in Cincinnati.
After that visit, the ball was in my court. Carlos tried to get me to move to New York for a really long time. He promised to love me and take care of me, and I totally believe he meant it. Something I should mention about Carlos was that he was very macho. This could be incredibly sexy, like how he always called me "baby", but it could also be annoying, like for instance, how he refused to sit anywhere with his back to the door. I think I was afraid that I couldn't function the way he expected his woman to be. Putting my destiny into someone else's hands was too hard for me.
We visited back and forth but ultimately knew that neither one of us were going to relocate for the other. After a few years we lost touch. If I could find him today, I know we would still be the greatest of friends. He's out there, on that island, somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment