The Last Valentine

“How is it that this man consumes my thoughts?” Carmen turned to Gabriel. “This is madness!”

“There is always some madness in love.”

“Are you mocking me with a Nietzsche quote?”

“My dear Carmen, I am a romantic. I would never dare make a mockery of love.”

Carmen sighed. She could not believe she permitted herself to be unhinged by the sight of a man she had never formally met. Her memory of him persisted in the mornings and in the evenings. When she woke thinking about him she realized that her desire to know him was more than a simple curiosity, or the infatuations of a schoolgirl experiencing her first crush. She could not avoid a profound feeling of longing that caused her to stop in the middle of whatever she was doing and surrender herself to the silent fantasies of her day dreams.

She did not endure the silent torture alone.

Days turned to weeks and the time had been agonizing for him as well. The stranger had wandered aimlessly through the cobbled streets of Old Sienna searching for another glimpse of the enchanting beauty he saw in the market. He was a foreigner in the city to where destiny had brought him. His business was his own, but it required him to travel throughout the Caribbean. In the sudden silence of other voices, he became familiar with the growing port city on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico.

At night when the wind was calm and the stars emerged in their places beyond the clouds he heard singing around every corner. He needed to see her again. He needed to soothe his soul with another glimpse of her exquisiteness. He needed to look into her eyes and lose himself to the hopelessness of love lest he find himself trapped in the catastrophe of what could have been.