‘IS THIS SEAT TAKEN?’ she asked. I looked up at the young woman in her school uniform. A black jacket, a black skirt. She had curly strawberry blonde hair, but her face was youthful, there was still a bit of baby fat around the chin, and she had a few pimples. I observed every part of her but could match her to no other individual in my mental database. I just had never seen her before. It was a weird question though. The table was small, and another person, a sort of nondescript young man with dark hair and glasses was sitting opposite me with his plate of potatoes, bulgur, and his glass of milk. He was doing a crossword. With a spoon, I was digging out the last chunks of chia pudding, made by the king of the folk music festival himself. Ando the K had gone into the confectionary trade, it seemed. It was tasty stuff. His speciality.
“I guess you could sit here,” I said to the young woman. With my invitation, it seemed like a storm blew through the cafeteria. A young man in a jean jacket walked by, with the wind from the storm in his hair. He looked like an extra from Top Gun in his shades but otherwise was undisturbed by this new hurricane. The young woman swept away all the plates and dishes from the table and I found myself on top of it. She mounted me at once, straddling me. Her hair was gusting up into the air. She looked like lightning. “This is what you wanted!” she yelled into my face. “You have been ignoring me, but you can never get away. This is what you want!”
“Yes,” is all I said, giving in to her. “Yes.”
LATER, I found myself at a construction site on the edge of town. A new hotel was being erected. At the edge of the hotel, there was a pool that had just been filled with water. Some people were jumping into the pool, even though it wasn’t allowed yet. Inside, there was a book event. There were books spilling all over the grand foyer of this brand new hotel. It was quite an impressive place, right out of the Gilded Age with its staircases, mirrors, and chandeliers. There was a new woman helping out with the sales of the books.
When the event was over, we had packed up all the books and were on our way out the door, when I saw the new woman standing in a shadowy corner. She was leaning against the wall there in the dark. Who was she even? She didn’t look familiar. She had tufts of dark curly hair and very pink lips. She could have been Israeli, or Palestinian. Throughout Estonia there were these Middle Eastern-looking Estonians. Spanish shipwreck off the island of Saaremaa. Or were they Portuguese? Some kind of story like that. I leaned in and we started to kiss. “Wow, so fast with you,” she said, kissing me back. “No small talk or anything, you get right to work.”
I felt like I was lost, lost in some maze or labyrinth of women. No matter which way I turned, one would be lurking in some corner, or mounting me on a lunch table in a stormy cafeteria. That’s when I woke up. I was in bed with the neighbor again. There I was, naked from head to toe. She was at one end. I was at the other. I felt warm in that bed. It felt like Christmas. The Doors were playing in the dim background. “I love those sounds you make,” she said, looking up with a glorious smile on her face. “I love that I can make you make those lovely sounds.”
north! 