XXVIII - Old Friends

‘How much do you wanna bet that I can sink the black ball from here?’ Asked Alexandre, aka, Alex, with a grin on his face. His fingers were firmly gripped around the wooden cue, his sight was firmly fixed upon the green table surface and a confident look was undeniably printed on his visage. Curiously enough, Alexandre was actually probably the one guy on earth that Leonardo would never label as “self-confident”, except, of course, when he was anywhere around a pool table.  When he was playing pool however, oh that was a whole different story. You couldn’t find anyone as cocky as him.

            ‘It’s a hard ball to sink Alex… five euros on how you can’t do it’, challenged him Leonardo.

            ‘It’s your money…’ said Alex, before taking his shot. As he did, he allowed the cue to slide through his fingers, gently but firmly, sending the white ball speedily on its way. ‘I think that will be five euros please, Mr. Leonardo,’ he finally said, as the black ball sank into the pocket.

            Alexandre was one of Leonardo´s three greatest friends. They had first met each other years ago, when they were both students at the reputable Colégio Valssassina, one of Lisbon’s best schools. Throughout the years, they had seen each other grow up, as did their friendship.

            ‘I can see that you haven’t been practicing much. That’s too bad, especially ‘cause in England they have some of the best players in the world’, said Alex, mocking Leonardo.

            ‘I think that you’ve been practicing a lot, on the other hand. You’re playing quite well old friend, I would even dare say that you’re better than our dear friend Romeu’, said Leonardo, well aware that there was barely nothing else he could say that would make Alex happier. Alex and Romeu, another of Leonardo’s greatest friends and also an alumni of the Colégio Valsassina, had a long-running fierce sporting rivalry, that encompassed Pool, Snooker, Darts, Fussball, Bowling, Gran Turismo as well as a few other games. Leonardo enjoyed playing against them in all of those games, but years of successive and frequent defeat had convinced him not to take the rivalry as seriously as his friends.   

‘By the way, I think Romeu is on his way, so sooner or later he should show up. Did you talk to David?’

‘Yeah, he said he couldn’t meet us here, but he can meet us for dinner. I told him we could go to that nice Japanese restaurant in Alcântara where we go to sometimes. He’ll be expecting us there around eight.’

‘It sounds like a good idea. So, tell all about your first week at work! How did it go?’

‘Good… I think.’

‘Some more detail please?’

‘Well, basically I got there at eight in the morning on my first day, and the boss introduce me to some of my new coworkers. After that he left me at the care of a more experienced journalist so he could teach me how things work around there, teach me the basics… it wouldn’t be so bad except the guy is a jerk and he kept treating me as if I was some kind of disabled kid with learning problems. That was only the first two days though, after that I managed to get rid of him and start doing my own thing so it got better. Honestly though, the work so far is a lot less interesting and much less glamorous than I thought it would be. Actually, most of the time they just wanted me to translate some English articles, so basically I’m just a translator, rather than a real journalist.’

‘Start getting used to it my friend. I hope you weren’t entertaining the idealistic notion that working would be fun, since if that was the case I think you’re in for a hell of a disappointment. I had similar thoughts about my profession until I started spending eight hours a day writing Christmas cards. After that they put me in charge of stupid travel brochures, which is basically about lying as much as you can in order to make some shitty place seem good and interesting. Now I spend my valuable time writing slogans for boring   lawyers bureaus and companies that sell stuff like refrigerators or copying machines. Fun…I don’t think so man.

The good thing is that after a while you start getting used to throwing away eight hours of your day, so after that you can go home and stuff your stomach with food and your mind with American TV shows. Than you wake up the next day and do the exact same thing again, and again, and again. Man, it’s just like when we were at school, maybe a little bit better or worse depending on the point of view or your job of course. Well, at least you’re not a male prostitute so that’s something you can be glad about.’

‘That’s an interesting way to put things Alex, although becoming a male prostitute was never really one of my options.’

‘So you can feel glad because of that. I don’t think a lot of people get into the line of business unless they’re pretty desperate. That leads me to the most important truth there is in the world and one you might wanna get comfy with.’

‘What’s that?’ Asked Leonardo, equal parts amused and disturbed.

‘People do what they do to earn money and that’s it. Depressing but true. That’s the mantra modern society lives by.’

‘Oh, oh, are you having one of your deep talks again? Come on guys, let’s talk about good things now that I’m here!’ said Romeu who burst into the snooker place, quickly strolling towards Leonardo and Alexandre.

‘My good friend Romeu’, said Leonardo giving him a friendly hug, ‘I thought I was gonna have to wait even longer to see you man. You’re so busy now that you can’t even meet up with your friend who has just returned home after a year’s absence?’

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you anytime sooner Leo, I wanted to see you as soon as I got back from Algarve but I had to work really crazy hours to make up for the time I was away. But the important thing is that I’m here now and we have the whole weekend to hang out. You’re gonna have to tell me all about your crazy trips. You look really skinny, didn’t they fee you in England?’

‘I lost a few kilos in Morocco, I think I got food poisoning there or something, I threw up for three days straight.’

‘Leo, Leo, Leo, you and your crazy travels… yet now I hope that we get to keep you for a while before you decide to leave again. How does it feel to be back here “in the village”? This ain’t exactly like England but there’s no place like home.’

‘Actually in my case it might be a bit more complicated than that...’ thought Romeu, quickly sweeping the thought to a side. ‘Anyways Romeu my boy, is it just me but Alex here got a lot better at this game? He just beat me three times in the last half and hour.’

‘It’s not you he’s better than me now, I have to admit. I think that he must come here everyday after work because I almost never beat him anymore.’

‘Come on Romeu, you don’t need to exaggerate, you’re still a good match for me. Speaking about that, what about if we play a game before leaving? We have to meet David at Alcântara at eight.’

‘That sounds like a good idea’, said Romeu ‘Leonardo and me against you Alex, maybe we’ll beet your cocky ass this time for a change…’

It didn’t quite turn out that way, since once again Alex didn’t waste the opportunity of showing off his skills, honed laboriously throughout many hours of practice. After that, the three friends headed for Alcântara, in order to meet David, the other of Leonardo’s three best friends.