Casual Saturdays

"We met on the first day of Carnival. I didn't speak a word of English and well, Leo knew no Portuguese. But the language barrier was not a problem since after all Carnival is really less talk more .... " She starts to laugh as she takes my right hand. 

"We spent the whole next two days together and then on the second night Leo wanted to bring me back to his hotel. But the hotel rules wouldn't let non guests stay the night. My hotel had the same rule, but we were desperate to find a place where we could continue Carnival's festivities!" Ze continues, laughing more now.  

"So what did you do?" I ask, my curiosity growing at the developing story. Ze motions for my left hand. 

"Well, Leo said that he had some big duffle bags that we could use to sleep on so he ran up to his room to get them. After walking and walking, we came up to the Pilar Cathedral, famous for its gold alter, and decided to lay down the duffle bags on the steps going up the church." She is smirking now.

"We got all situated and then, well, continued Carnival in the duffle bag there on the Cathedral steps." 

"Did anyone see you?" I asked, my eyes widening. 

"Oh just wait," she responds, setting down my hands in her lap as she searches for the nail file. After searching for a few seconds in her messy drawer she finds it and takes my right hand again. 

"So there we were...you know, and all the sudden I see a camera flash out of the corner of my eye. And I am like what is that? I look over and there are three news reporters from Brazil's number one news channel, Globo, taking photos and filming Leo and I in the duffle bag!" At this point Ze has forgotten about my hands as the story escalates. "I sit up pulling my shirt down, god my hair was a mess! You know how it gets? People were gathering around the scene and soon enough EVERYONE know what had been going on. Leo got very mad at this invasion of privacy, but what did he expect there we were on the Church steps in a duffle bag!" Ze is laughing so hard now and I start to laugh too. 

"So what happened next?" I ask, sitting on the edge of my seat. Ze picks up my right hand again and starts to file down my nails. 

"Well, after the situation settled down, we gathered the duffle bags and each went back to our hotels."

"And that was it?" I say, beginning to feel paniked about the situation. 

"Calma," she says, clearly enjoying the suspense. "We both went back to our hotels planning to meet up the next day. " Ze stops as if that was the end of the story. 

"Anddddd??"

"Well by the third day I was getting sick of just kissing. I mean up until that point we would just kiss and kiss because there was nothing else to do, we had no way to communicate. Sometimes we would stop and look at each other and then what? So the next day I took Leo to the book store and we each bought an English-Portuguese dictionary. This helped a lot because we both were able to form broken sentences in each other languages and get to know each other better. Kissing is fun, we both know that, but two days of just kissing! I was going crazy!" 

A funny image forms in my head of Leo and Ze standing amongst the Carnival madness looking up words between pecks. 

"So what happened that night?" I ask curious to see if the couple would make their second appearance on national television. 

 "Well, luckily Leo had made friends with the security guard of his hotel and paid him off to let me come back with him that night."

Phew, I thought, the duffle bag scene would really get old two nights in a row. Ze starts clipping my cuticles. 

"And so we went back and spent the night together and it was really nice. But by the next day I was really sick of the language barrier. I didn't like not being able to fully communicate you know? So I decided that morning I didn't want to see Leo anymore. I gathered my things and went back to my hotel to meet up with friends. I had barely seen them since I had spent every minute with Leo." 

"What? No!" I protest. Ze looks up briefly before returning to my cuticles. 

"So after breakfast my friends and I went to our favorite bar to begin the fourth day of Carnival. And of course who is there? Leo. 'Coraçao de pedra!' he yells as me 'coraçao de pedra!' Apparently that was one of the only Portuguese expressions he knew!" Ze explains. She shakes the light pink bottle of nail polish and motions for me to lay my hand flat on her knee. 

"So what happened?" I ask as Ze starts the first coat. 

"Nothing. My friends and I left and I didn't see him the rest of the day." 

"So that was it?" 

"No. Wait", she replies beginning on my second hand. 

"The next day I woke up and could not believe what I had done. How did I not realize? I was completely in love with Leo! How could I have told him I didn't want to see him anymore? I wanted to marry him! But we were leaving! I had to go home! But I had to see him one more time. I had to tell him! But, you know, there were no cell phones or Facebook this was 1991!" At this point Ze has completely forgotten about my last pinky finger she still has to paint. 

"So I quickly got dressed and sprinted to the Leo's hotel. I went to talk to the front desk but they wouldn't let me go up to his room. So I went outside and started throwing rocks at his window". 

"LEOOO," I yelled. "LEEEOOO, WAKE UP!! I love you! Please I am so sorry! Please wake up if you hear me! LEOOO. But he didn't come to the window. I dont know if he just didn't hear me or was so heart broken that he did not want to see me anymore. God I was a mess, sobbing like a baby! Do you want the same color on your toes?" 

"Yes please." 

"So, you know, I got home later that day and went to work the next morning and what was on the front page of the paper? A picture of Leo and I on the church steps in the duffle bag with my shirt half way up and my hair a complete wreck! My boss set the paper down in front of me without saying a word. But I didn't care. Seeing the picture made me miss Leo even more. I was heart broken. What was I going to do? I didn't have any money! I had just spent it all on Carnival. How was I going to go back to Ouro Preto and find him? I asked everyone I knew to lend me money for the bus ticket and after a week I had gathered enough to go back in search for Leo. I knew he wasn't going to be there but I had to go. I first went to the hotel where he stayed and begged them to give me his information. Anything even his last name or some address he had. I knew nothing about him. But they wouldn't. I even offered to bribe them but they wouldn't say a word. I then went to all the different places we had been together thinking maybe he would be there: the church steps, the park, the bar where we met. But nothing. He was gone." 

"So you never saw him again?" 

"No."

"But why didn't you go back to the hotel to ask again!? You could of gotten the information out of them if you tried harder!! You really had no way of finding him?!" I was becoming very emotional. I would not accept the end of Ze and Leo's affair. 

"All I knew was that he was a taxi cab driver from New York, whose name was Leo." I look at her without saying anything as she finishes clipping my right big toe. 

 

"So anyways," Ze continues, "I went home, broke up with my boyfriend [casual side note], and tried to move on. I was such a mess. Then I got married a few years later but I divorced the guy. To this day I have never met someone that makes me feel the way Leo did. I am still in love with him, you know? I kept the newspaper with our picture because it is the only physical memory I have. Twenty years later and its still in he drawer of my bed side table." Ze laughs again, but she looks sad. 

"I want to write the story on Google to see if he sees it. Will you help me write it in English to post on Google? They say that is the easiest way to find people." 

"Of course! We can write it together. You two have to see each other again! We have to find Leo!" And before she responds, a high pitched squealing voice comes running over. 

"Zzzeeeeeee, honeeyyy oh how I've missssed you!! I'm so sssorry I haven't been in in so long! I have just been so bussssyyy." I look up and there is a 6 foot 2 transvestite with the biggest fake boobs I have ever seen. 

"Paula! Where have you been? Here I am always calling you to go out and you never call me back! We have to go out and find some sexy men!!" Ze replies. 

"I know honey, tomorrow! Listen. To. This. We are going to a party at Vila Country where all there is are big hunky hotties! You're coming!" She squeals.

"Oh sweetie that sounds so fun!! I just have to make sure my daughter isn't going to the same party because I hate it when she sees me making out with everyone!!" The two start laughing. I am well, speechless. And before I know it in walks two more transvestites. 

"Paula!! Oh my got what are you doing here??? You look amazingg!!! Have you been doing yoga???" 

"I mean if that is what you want to call it!!" Paula replies to her friend as they all crack up. I am beginning to catch on

"Ze, do you please have time to do my nails before I start my shift tonight? Look at them they are a disaster!!"

"Of course sweetie. Let me just finish painting this precious little Gringa's toes and then ill do you yours!!" 

The three ladies sit down on the couch next to us. 

"So then, there I was, in the hotel room and he is refusing to pay me. And I am like hello???" 

"What do you mean refusing to pay you? Like does he know how it works?" Ze replies. 

"Right? So you know what I did?" 

"What?" they all say together. 

"I took the two fancy bottles of champagne he ordered up to the room and threw them at the wall! That really got the message across!" 

Okay am I really witnessing what I think I am witnessing right now?

"Well good for you, Paula! You show him whose boss! I hate it when they think they can just walk all over you. Its like um, no! This is my job!" 

"And what about you Esmerelda? How is business?" asks Ze. 

"Business is good. I have been going to the nicer clubs and stuff so I can pick up the millionaires. You just cant beat what they pay!"

"Good! So you are making good money then?" Ze confirms. 

"Yes. We are in high season!" The all laugh and squeal. 

With that I begin to take a better look around to see what kind of salon I had actually walked into that Saturday afternoon after my casual walk through the neighborhood. And what do you know? It just so happens to be the exact gathering place for all the prostitutes I see every night on the street corners around my apartment. And Ze, my new friend, Leo's long lost lover, was there go to gal for all last minute preparations/alterations before the night's rendezvous commence. 

"All done fofinha!" Ze states as she finishes off the last coat. "Paula help her put her flip flops on so she doesn't mess up her toes!" Paula helps me slip into my havaianas and gives me a kiss on the cheek. 

"So nice to meet you sweetie!!" 

"You too!" I say my voice cracking. Why am I so nervous? 

"Fofinha do you want to book another appointment for next weekend?"

"No thats okay I think Ill just call later this week." Will I? 

I give Ze a kiss on the cheek and head out the door where I am greeted by that humid Paulistan air with honking horns and the smell of burnt rubber.  Did that really all just happen? Did I just make friends with prostitues? Better yet did some middle aged lady just confess her romantic love affair to me? Just another day in the life, I guess. Walking up the street, my freshly painted toes sparkling in the late afternoon sun. Well, whats next?