Nighthawks dreamers

II

When they started dating I even though that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. That night in Phillie's I had the impression she seemed rich, maybe she was our salvation. Her ginger hair looked elegant; she was also well make up and well dressed. That night everybody kept secrets. At first her red dress had made me thing of her a prostitute which later I also realized I wasn't that wrong, she wasn't anymore yet she used to in France. Although the big glass window and the bright light from inside allowed me to prove she seemed rich, and that they might be brothers because they had very similar physical traits, like a pick-nose; I was not able to see that they were too as lost as we were.

The following day the band gave us a thump. The man we had to kill had escaped while we were waiting for the right moment. Someone had warned him and he left. 'Next task yo' gotta do dat shit fo' free. N' if yo' disobey me one mo' time yo' know what the fuck gotta happen ta yo'.'

It wasn't until a week later, that Joan went back to Phillie's, this time, secretly, hoping to find her again. He went there for a week, every day in different hours. Till one day, while he waa entering he hear her:

'Another drink, please.' 'You sure, miss?'

'I will drink with the madame, if she does not mind.' Said Joan.

They drank one next to each other for a while. Finally, he said: 'You like it?'

She did not answer. But he insisted. He said to me, he was trembling, but he needed so much to speak with her, that he couldn't stop insisting. So he repeated the question.

'If you think that because I am a single woman at a bar drinking in midday, you'll be able to sleep with me, you are quite wrong.'

'Oh no. I did not meant that. I am sorry if I bothered you, I just, well, when I saw you I remembered you. For your face, I imagine you might not recognize me, well, I was here a night you were here too. In fact, it was the first night you were here, I did not meant to spy you, it is just we were the three of us alone, and although I tried not to listen, I did. I am sorry. You come from France, don't you?'

'Yeah, there is no way of dissimulating my accent.'

'No, I didn't mean to say that, your English is better than mine. But I like it, I also have mine.'

'Spanish? Italian?'

'Spanish, although I always speak Catalan. So, then you are not quite wrong with the Italian, it is very similar to it, and also to French. You know, if I had never heard you speak, I would have said you were Irish.'

'Yeah, my mother always tried to dye her hair so as people did not doubt she was my mother, isn't it ridiculous... I know she did it because she loved my colour...' And after saying this her eyes filled with water.

'You okay?'

'Yeah. Well – no. The day I arrived, the day you say you saw me here, I was meant to tell my brother about the death of our family – It was a bomb – I was out going to collect the food they gave to us monthly, that day my mother wasn't feeling very well, so I went, but by the time I went back home, a bomb had destroyed all my neighbourhood. My father, my mother and my little brother were at home – I – I was alone – without nothing.'

'I am sorry – I also lost my family – A friend and I, came here in search for a better live too but in fact, we first exiled to Mexico, but I knew we could dream for more, so we came to America but life is hard – '

'Yeah, it is.'

Some weeks later, they started dating. They helped each other to be happy and loved again. They saved each other. In fact, they were very similar, it is curious how life can match people in this mystical way.

Later, he told me after some month dating secretly that she had been a prostitute during those month before earning the money enough to come to America. She had luck, she found a military man who felt in love with her and payed her the ticket to escape, she promised him they will keep sending letters and that when war ended he would come to find her and marry her. But she hatted him, he was Nazi. Joan also told me he had confessed her he was a gangster.