Once upon a time, in another life, there was a little girl who loved books. At four she read the newspapers headlines, as if she were in a hurry to learn how to read, so that she could learn all the stories in all the books in the world. On Sundays, when her father was home, he would sit her on his lap and she would show him her progress, and he would unfailingly kiss the top of …
Category: Other Stories
Yesterday I was watching a documentary about Karen Blixen, the heroine of “Out of Africa”, a movie based on her autobiography with the same title, and played by an unforgettable Meryl Streep. At a certain point Denys Finch-Hatton (played in the movie by the one and only Robert Redford) is mentioned as “the great love of her life” and I wondered about why is it that all great love stories – or most of them – have such sad …
Prince Uncharming More and more, the memories of his life as a powerful prince of a distant land are vanishing in the mists of time. But he will never forget the day when the wise woman of the forest (or was it a witch?) condemned him to a life of incarceration within the green vase. And, this time, no true love from a woman would save him as in Beauty and the Beast. To be fair, he didn’t deserve …
Just because I have been meeting you more than I should in my frequent trips to the past it doesn’t mean that you are doing that, or ever did. Just because the thought of bumping into you every time I go to your city crosses my mind, it doesn’t mean you ever thought the same. After all, why should you? It is your city; you are always there, and you could not guess at my comings and goings. …
Maybe it’s a dream many of us share, deep down – that of finding a lover of our younger years later in life, and together relive wonderful moments long buried in the past. It might be something like going back in time or getting your youth back, in a way; or maybe start dreaming again at a time when there is little fantasy left in your life. A romantic soul by nature, I must say I never …
The April afternoon was sunny and the temperature mild. She hadn’t been to Paris for some time, so she unpacked in a hurry and in no time she was leaving her hotel by the Arc de Triomphe. She was startled to see so many armed troops at the entrance but then she remembered the recent terrorist attacks and silently uttered a prayer – God, please let me enjoy this city I love so much, as I used to, just …
Today I dreamed of him. It happened during those moments when I am neither in deep sleep nor fully awake – I call it the twilight zone. Many creative ideas come to me when I am in that frontier between sleep and wakefulness, but then, if this was a dream – and it was – I must have dozed, for how could I otherwise explain those vivid, too real images that crossed my mind? I almost never …
I’m reading a book by one of my favourite Spanish authors, Julia Navarro, Dime quien soy (in English Tell me who I am, although I’m not sure there is an English translation). It’s a compelling story about a woman who, in the thirties of the 20th century, abandons an upper class, comfortable life to follow a communist revolutionary, who turns out to be a Russian spy who will use her for his less than transparent purposes. She shares his …
She’s driving on an autumn sunny day, and on her Spotify playlist James Blunt’s nostalgic voice sings “You’re beautiful”. She remembers driving another car, years ago, while listening to that same song on the way to meet him. At the time they were working together on a project, there was nothing between them, or maybe only a feeling of growing trust, the beginning of a friendship, of shared ideas; somehow there was a taste of something good to come. And …
At eighteen she arrived in the big city with butterflies in her belly – leaving her island to come and study at university was no small adventure! She had many friends there, though, and through one of them she had found the place where she was going to stay. For years, friends of friends coming from her island had stayed there and recommended it. She knew Lisbon of course, she had been there several times with her family; …