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Over the next few days and months, Carlos was punctually present at the date he had not been invited, and his eyes could no longer turn away from her. Unfortunately, on the second day of such platonic admiration, he was called to the gym office. The young woman had complained that Carlos was keeping his eyes on her and she had begged them to tell him that she was a married Muslim woman and that she did not want to be disturbed or even approached. Carlos was forced to forget his youthful illusion, but although he tried, he couldn't do it. He was in love. He continued to coincide whenever he could with the young woman's fixed schedule and sneaking in with eager looks when she didn't look there.
One Tuesday Aphrodite didn't show up. Carlos realised it immediately. The time that he now spent between levers and weights, which before used to pass quickly, became eternal. The automatic movements, which he used to make at the same time as her without any effort, were once again a boring and annoying workload. He looked at his growing muscles day by day, and knew that he had reached a level that was highly appealing for his clients, although he no longer had any illusions.
When three weeks passed without seeing his idealized queen, he knew that her absence was more than just a disease, his initial assumption. He asked the gym managers but no one knew anything. His interest in continuing to build more muscles in his body declined so much that he thought about quitting. Without her presence there, exercise was an ordeal.
When he least expected to solve the mystery, he saw her. She was dressed all in black. Yes, it was her. Was she in mourning?
A restrained feeling, the need to be close to her prompted him to speak.
-You're Aphrodite, right? What happened to you? Why don't you come to the gym?
She looked at him with a frightened face, seemed to be trying to protect herself from such unhealthy company by covering her face and quickly crossed the street without even looking at him.
- What happened to you? Are you going back to the gym?
Aphrodite's hasty steps were lost on the opposite sidewalk, without even turning her head.
- Poor. That's too bad. Becoming such a young widow - he heard a former client beside him said, accompanying her granddaughter home after school.
- Widowed? I didn't know anything. What happened to the husband?
- Those damn cars, getting bigger, getting faster....
- An accident?
- Yes, a tree collision. He was charred to death. It's a good thing he was alone. A tragedy. And she doesn't have anyone here anymore, poor girl.
- No, I didn't know that.
- How about you? Are you still working on the same thing?
- What? Yeah, I'm still the same as always.
- See if I can call you one of these days. I have a malfunction in the bathroom. I need a plumber.
- Well, all right.
Carlos also crossed the street without having hardly listened to the job offer that the old woman offered him.
- Widow? Is she not going to the gym anymore? -he said to himself.
Now more alone than ever, with the relaxing sea breeze blowing in pleasant humidity, he was thinking about her. What was the point of staying there with nothing for a 36-year-old man? It was throbbing for a widowed woman who didn't even want to see him while time passed, without any other illusion, without a project. The beloved face and sweaty eyes that occupied the whole of the firmament appeared again before him. He couldn't stand the image and came home.
As always, sitting on his mother's plaid sofa, beer, pizza and a bit of television.
The phone rang. It was his fuckbudy Beatrice, the only single girl in the city with whom he had found a certain sexual and personal affinity. She was the confidant of his problems and of his current troubled state, although until then she had had little success in convincing him to find an honest job.
- Hey, Carlos! Can you talk?
- Hi Beatrice. Yeah, I can always do it with you. How’s work?
- That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Don't you know who came to the travel agency today?
- Tell me.
- Your platonic love.
- Aphrodite? Is she going to travel?
- She' s leaving.
- What do you mean, she' s leaving? Where?
- She bought me a plane ticket for a flight in a week's time. Marseille-Asmara. She told me that she's fixed everything and that she's leaving with her family. Do you know that her husband was killed in an accident?
- Yeah, I know. Asmara? Where's that?
- The capital of Eritrea. Near the Red Sea.
To Carlos, this geographic information still didn't tell him anything, owing to his illiteracy caused by the years of school bullying. But then the idea came to him.
- Beatrice, are you there?
- Sure. What's the matter with you?
- I want another ticket. Next to hers.
- What do you say?
- Yes, I want you to book the ticket and order 2. I'll pay you for the other one.
- Are you going to Eritrea? Are you crazy?
- I don't have anything here. I'm into crazy things.
- You don't know what you're doing. You look like a kid. I’m certainly not going to that country.
- You take out that extra ticket, okay? Or shall I stop by?
- Come tomorrow. I haven't blocked the other one yet because I needed her passport.
- What time is Aphrodite going to the agency?
- She told me about 11 o'clock.
- I'll be there at 9:00, okay? I'll bring my passport and money. And if you want, I invite you for lunch and a nap.
- Very generous you are. Too bad you don't even want to travel to the Costa Brava with me.
- Another time I’ll do, I promise. Now I have to get everything ready, as in a week's time I'm going to the jungle.
- Jungle? Before you come take a good look at the city and the country you want to visit. Round trip ticket, right?
- Did she ask for it?
- No. I told you she' s leaving. Just one way.
- Just one way for me too.
- Unbelievable. No, return ticket for you.
After a few days of collection and closing, Charles, with his four-wheeled suitcase, was at Marseille airport trying to find his way to the chosen flight. It was low season for tourism so it did not find too many crowds.
Once in the queue waiting for his turn, half hidden, he noticed the arrival of his beloved love, also alone, which in no way imagined that she was going to coincide with her gym mate from La Ciotat.
In the waiting room while waiting to get on the plane, their eyes met, but none of them said anything. Carlos looked like a city disregarder and sat far away from her, apparently involved in the reading of a travel guide about Ethiopia and Eritrea. Aphrodite put on some headphones and closed her eyes. Music, inaudible to others, seemed to be relaxing her.
At their arrival at their seats of a narrow plane of two seats per row, the young woman became impatient.
- But did you get the seat next to me?
- Yes. I'm on 22 aisle. And you?
- 22 window.
- Well, we'll travel together. It's all right.
Aphrodite didn't seem to think this was such a coincidence.
- Tourist trip, right? - said Carlos in a disinterested tone.
- No, family matters.
- I'm going to Eritrea as a tourist.
- Alone? In this day and season?
- Yes, in low season there are very good prices - he continued with the same tone.
Aphrodite put her headphones back on and listened to the music, which the young man perceived faintly. And so the first part of the journey went on. When Aphrodite fell asleep, Charles was able to contemplate all her beauty closer than ever. Her black, long, strong, shiny hair. Her face strong, smooth, with curves carved with chisel. Her body strong, healthy, emanating uncontained femininity. Strolling through her silhouette was the greatest joy for a young man who had possessed too many bodies and loved too few. Aphrodite was a magnet to him from which he could no longer be separated. Unable to resist, he leaned over her and kissed her hair chastely, skipping the interpersonal distance. But unfortunately that was when the young lady woke up.
- Stewardess! Stewardess!
- Sorry, I wasn't doing anything. I only kissed your hair because... because I love you.
- Stewardess! Come on, please!
- What's going on? - said the stewardess in alarm, coming quickly.
- Give me another seat! I don't want to be with this man. He has had intentions.
- Another seat? OK, it's no problem. We have plenty of empty seats.
- Excuse me, stewardess. It was nothing. I got carried away by my impulses. We are friends.
- What do you mean, friends? I don't know him!
- You're lying, Aphrodite. We've known each other for a long time.
- Calm down, please. If the lady doesn't want to be with you, I have to find another place for her.
- If anyone has to change, it will be me," said Carlos, saddened.
Feeling the looks of the whole passage behind him, Carlos walked towards the tail of the plane occupying one of the last seats. He was again, as in his last days of school, the last in line.
During the second part of the trip, Carlos, in one of the last seats of the plane, embarrassed and having nothing else to do, devoted himself to recognizing the territory he was heading to and which seemed to be very different from the African jungle that appeared in his children's stories... What would happen when he landed at the airport?
- I will not be separated from her! - he said forcefully within himself, as he thought of the fateful moment of coming ashore. She'd probably have her family waiting for her. He would be left alone in an unknown country of incomprehensible languages, Arabic and Tigrinya, as he had read in the travel guide, with whose reading he was trying to make his journey easier and help him reduce his blood pressure.
And the fateful moment of getting off the plane came. He should have stayed at a safe distance from the woman he loved, but when they took out the luggage, he followed her.
- Aphrodite, please give me a chance. I tried to forget you, but I can't. I came here for you. I'd die if I couldn't see you anymore.
- Please, leave me alone. I'm a widow, I'm going back to my homeland. That's all over now.
- I just want to see you again, I want to be with you, don't leave me alone.
- Hail Aphrodite! - was heard near them.
- Cugino Paolo. Chè allegria! Come sono felice di rivederti!
- Anch'io, cara cugina. Ma chi è il ragazzo?
- Un francese che viaggia nello stesso volo.
- Niente di te?
- No, figurati.
- Excuse me, sir. Can I travel with you? I'm going to the same place as Aphrodite. I'll pay for your trip.
- Cosa?
The cousin looked at Aphrodite. The other man knew her name. There was something between them.
- Non accettare. Andiamo subito. Dopo ti spiego. I'm sorry. You can't come, Frenchman. Happy holidays, - said the young lady, closing the door of the van behind her.
Carlos ran to the other side and almost begged the driver to take him with them.
