‘Hi people, I’m sorry we’re late….’ Says
Leonardo as they approach the table.
‘Yeah… we got caught up in something… we
lost track of time.’ Says Jean-Pierre in succession.
‘You’re late guys!’ Chiara points out bluntly.
It comes as no surprise that she is the first one to talk. Yet, to Leonardo and
Jean-Pierre’s slight surprise she doesn’t seem to be particularly mad. She
looks a bit too tired to be really mad. From the expression on her face, it
seems as if they weren’t the only ones to have been celebrating the end of an
era well into dawn. ‘Come on, sit down and tell us what you did last night and
why you didn’t answer our calls,’ she finally said, in a tone that was more
curious than reproving.
Often when students move out to go to University,
newly found friends become a surrogate family of sorts. This is especially true
in the case of foreign students, often too far from home to go back every
holyday. In the case of Leonardo, who wasn’t even sure exactly where “home”
was, this couldn’t be any truer.
This was the seventh year since he had
left Lisbon, his seventh year living on his own, his “seventh cycle” as a
university student. As a foreigner himself, seemingly he couldn’t escape the
tendency of befriending other foreigners, rather than being integrated in the
“native” circles. However, the inherent problem of befriending foreigners is
that they are a lot more likely to leave than locals. This fact was the reason
why every year Leonardo had to rebuild his circle of friends practically from
scratch. The fact that he had moved to a new country in three occasions in the
past seven years also didn’t help.
So here’s Leonardo, saying goodbye to his
friends, in some cases probably forever, for the seventh time in his life.
Technically, this is not a real goodbye. I
mean, they will probably see each other many more times in the following week
or two before most of them finally leave to go back to their respective home
towns. Yet, to Leonardo, it really feels like a goodbye. It doesn’t matter that
he still has a week and a half left in Leeds. This is probably the last time
they are going to be all reunited for breakfast like they have done so many
times during the course of the elapsed school year. The semester is over, the
academic year is over and a whole stage of his life is over… It doesn’t only
feel like a goodbye, it feels like closure.
‘…’
‘So, come on, we’re all curious, where
were you last night? You gotta us all a bit worried when you didn’t answer your
phones and didn’t show up until this morning…’ insists Chiara, after Leonardo
and Jean-Pierre fail to reply straight away. They are still feeling a bit slow,
probably because of the alcohol in their blood and the hangover punching the
back of their heads.
Chiara is a 24-year-old Erasmus student
originally from central Italy. Jean-Pierre, Leonardo and her are the oldest in
the group, but if there is a leader, it’s Chiara. Most times when they get
together they do so in her house and she usually cooks for everyone tasty
Italian meals. When the group organizes some special activity, she is usually
the one behind it. She is for the most part the glue that keeps everyone
together and everyone likes her and respects her. She exhales that “mum-like”
quality that only a few women do, and that makes everyone want to trust and
obey her.
‘We went to a party…’ says Leonardo.
‘We got drunk…’ mumbles Jean-Pierre.
‘Very drunk…’ emphasizes Leonardo
‘We ended up losing track of time you see
and then I don’t know what happened…’
‘And next thing you know I’m waking up in
some couch in some living room in some stranger’s house and a bunch of people
are sleeping on the floor and I see Jean…’
‘… and he wakes me up and I had no idea
where I was you see and this terrible headache and we were late…’
‘ And fifteen minutes or so later here we
are,’ finally concluded Leonardo.
Chiara tries hard not to laugh, since
she’s supposed to be the responsible one but a giggle comes out in spite of her
best efforts. Most of the others laugh as well, almost all of them more enthusiastically.
Yet, sitting across the table from Leonardo and Jean-Pierre, there are two cute
English girls that don’t laugh at all. Most of the missed calls had come from
their cell phones. Jennifer is blonde and blue eyed and has been seeing
Jean-Pierre for the past three months. She seldom comes to Popina’s with the
folks to have breakfast on Sundays, but today she’s there because she knew that
was her best bet to find Jean-Pierre after trying to call her the whole night
and morning without any success. She looks at him with angry eyes and he looks
down avoiding making eye contact with her. When their glances finally cross,
Jean fells as if an electric current has went through his entire body deleting
any trace of dignity. He feels ashamed like a four-year-old boy caught stealing
the neighbour’s fresh,
home made, apple pie. Chloe is a politics student, a brunette and has
big beautiful amber eyes. She met Leonardo at a house party shortly after the
second semester started and they started seeing each other shortly afterwards.
Although she likes hanging out with the whole bunch, she came to Popina’s this
morning mostly for the same reason Jennifer did. Unlike Jennifer she doesn’t
seek eye contact, she prefers to let indifference and silence do the trick.
Leonardo feels equally ashamed and almost wants to tell her he’s sorry, but he
doesn’t dare doing it in front of all the others. He keeps to himself and
orders his English breakfast, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, fried
eggs and two slices of bacon served accompanied by a drink, in this case hot
tea.
Except for Leonardo, Jean-Pierre and “their girls”, the rest of the crew
is Italian. For some reason, Leonardo always feels more comfortable around
Italians than any other people. Maybe they remind him of his good Roman
friends, maybe he just likes the language and welcomes the opportunity to
practice it frequently, or maybe he enjoys the culture as a whole. The fact is
that in seven years most of the friends he has made are Italian.
With the possible exception of Chiara and Jean-Pierre, his best friends
in Leeds are Marco and Sara. He met Marco three years ago, in an IT
Introduction class in their first year. Marco is the most eccentric of the
bunch and could be described as a mad Italian philosopher with a very
pronounced feminine side and yet resolutely heterosexual. His girlfriend, Sara,
talks with a strong accento romano (roman accent), loves English rock bands
and French movies, is a good listener and wants to make the world a better
place.
‘Come on boys, when are you gonna confess and finally tell us that you
participated in a crazy bi-sexual orgy last night?’ Asked Marco, in his usual
inconvenient manner. Sara, sitting right to next to him, elbows him violently,
making him growl.
‘What?’ he asks gesticulating his arms as in “what did I do now?” Sara makes a subtle gesture with her head indicating the two glum-looking
girls on the corner of the table. “Oh…”
‘Sorry Marco, I think the only person in this table that would participate
in a bi-sexual orgy voluntarily would be you,’ replies Leonardo. ‘So what did
you guys do last night anyways? It doesn’t seem like you had a lot of sleep
either…’
‘ Cazzo, é stata una serata da
paura!’ said Francesco. Leonardo realized he was wearing his jumper inside
out.
‘Speak in English man, there’s people here that don’t speak Italian,’
told him Antonio.
Francesco was six foot four, was considerably thin and had long straight
hair black as the feathers of a crow. Antonio was short, well built and had
curly light-brown hair. They were both Erasmus students who had arrived in the
second semester when they had quickly joined Leonardo’s group.
‘Yeah… I mean… it was a great night man! We all went to a house party.
Antonio got so drunk that he threw up on himself, it was fucking gross!’
Everyone laughed this time, even the English girls. By then Fabrizio had
already eaten his breakfast, half of Anna’s and was preparing to “help” Mara
finish hers. He was the crew’s best eater,
proven through the course of countless meals shared together. He would mutter “buono! buono!” whilst devouring amazing
quantities of food every time.
It was things like that that made
Leonardo feel at home. After you spend enough time with someone you learn to appreciate
their habits, just because they become routine. You appreciate every mannerism,
every tendency and repetition becomes familiarity and that develops into
friendship.
That was not a morning for complex
talks or amazing events. It was a bunch of people who really liked each other
that got together to eat sausages and eggs. It was also the last time when
everything was like it used to be.
The Traveller is Listening to:
L'horloge Tourne (Mickael Miro, 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9iYK91IKMU
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