The Sirens of Calypso- Chapter 20- Te Busque

 

            Using her unsurpassed knowledge of the city’s alleyways, Talia put as much distance between Calypso and herself as possible before stopping to catch her breath. It took a little more time for it to register that the erratic buzzing following her wasn’t coming from her racing thoughts, but her cell phone. Vanessa’s name flashed on its fluorescent screen. She hastily shut it off before stuffing it back into her purse. “Ugh,” she shook her head, “he said I will know where to find him. Juan Paulo must take me for a complete fool.” She replaced her heels back on her feet and continued onward.
            The first idea that came to mind was the closest option. Talia retraced her steps to find her way back to the main drag. Music was still pulsing from Calypso and its entrance was obscured by the masses of people unable to gain access inside. She paused to take in the view she rarely had the opportunity to appreciate. Despite the tough competition of attending a show, these patrons hadn’t let it damper their spirits. Whatever music made its way outside, they used to create their own block party. Some were even handing out street food to their friends. “We really do have the best show in town,” she nodded with immense pride. But before anyone could recognize her, she disappeared down the block and slipped into La Scala. She pressed the doors closed behind her and let out a massive exhale.
            “Talia! Talia! Natalia!” A trio of voices called out to her in unison. The first two were clear as bells; the latter was less familiar and had a slight accent. Her head jerked upward and she flushed. Her intrusion broke up what appeared to be a closed rehearsal. Scarlet was center stage, accompanied by Javier who sat askew on a stool with an acoustic guitar straddling his right thigh.
            Emilia shot up from her seat in the front row and ran over to throw her arms around her. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have a show tonight?” Shifting her gaze around her head, Talia saw Scarlet waving her cell phone in the air. Her green eyes bulged with panic. They exchanged no words, but Talia understood immediately. Scarlet had heard about her sudden disappearance through the grapevine. Based on Emilia’s reaction to her sudden appearance, she wasn’t in the loop.
            Loosening Emilia’s grip, Talia redirected the question to the stage. “What about here? Doesn’t the band have a show too?”
            Javier replied, exasperated, “We were planning to, but JP called last minute to cancel. He’d been home all night”
            “I see...” Talia said coolly. She tried not to let disappointment color her tone. The difference hadn’t escaped Scarlet, though. Her posture relaxed, but perplexity remained in her expression. She narrowed her eyes as if to decipher the meaning of her visit through ESP, yielding no results.
            “If you don’t mind, Natalia,” Javier lowered himself from the stool, his guitar cradled to his chest, “could I show you something I’d been working on?”
            “Javi,” Scarlet suddenly reached for his shoulder, “now might not be the best time”
            Talia waved away her concerns. “It’s ok, Scarlet. I have a little spare time for this. Go ahead, Javier.”
            He sat on the end of the stage, his legs dangling over the side. “I’m not an expert poet like JP, but my guitar playing has its own unique strengths as well.”
            Right away, Talia noticed his style of playing was vastly different than Juan Paulo’s. Instead of relying on a guitar pick, he delicately moved the strings between his first three fingers. The Spanish melody brought her back to her childhood and the lullabies her mother used to sing her to sleep. Scarlet sung a haunting wordless melody to it, inspiring Talia to find an open space in front of the stage to dance. She shut her eyes and let herself get carried away in the moment. At what sounded like a chorus, she sung, in clear Spanish, words from one of those old songs.
            In a whisper, Javier answered the question mark over Scarlet’s head with an air of reverence, “I grew up with that song. A lot of Latinos and Latinas with deep family roots had it passed down to them. Hearing it always made me a little sad.”
            “How come?” Briefly, she studied Emilia. She was so enchanted by Talia’s ease of movement that she was oblivious to everything else happening around her.
            “It’s about searching for the one who will complete your heart even if that person does not exist in your lifetime. My mother sang it for years after we came here. She thought my father was her soul mate and wondered if she’d had it wrong. That her true other half was still out there somewhere. She remarried eventually, but it took a long time before she returned to that place of happiness.”
            “Wow… Talia has ghosts in her past like the rest of us, but I’m not sure if that’s all she’s thinking about right now.” Watching Talia do what she did best, Scarlet couldn’t help but revisit recent history. Before they met Juan Paulo and Javier at karaoke. Talia was throwing herself into every aspect of her work. She put on a brave face when there weren’t any shows to give or clients to see, but Vanessa told her of nights she heard Talia cry herself to sleep. In some of these recollections, Talia’s melodic Spanish was audible through the wall separating their rooms. It was soft and beautiful, but also sad.
            Javier finished before anyone realized it; each of the sirens were entrenched in myriads of reminiscing and daydreaming. Once his guitar stopped playing, his and Talia’s voices filled the entire room. They matched each other word for word and their voices blended into the most breathtaking duet. Talia stopped dancing and her jaw slackened when she realized what had transpired. She bit the nail on her right thumb and turned her back on the others. Once she regained herself, she averred, “Very nice, Javier. It would be a good introduction for the people who did not grow up with those old songs. But I think maybe you should make the melody in the verses different, so it feels like you have your own twist on it.”
            “I appreciate that, Natalia. Thank you.” He turned to his left. “Do you want to call it a night, Scarlet? If the show at Calypso is done, it must be getting late.”
            “Actually,” Talia spun around, “if you need to rehearse more, you can. If this is to be for an upcoming show, a little more polish would not hurt.” She cast a generous smile to Scarlet, who turned red in response. Then she redirected, “On the other hand, Emilia should be getting her beauty rest. It will be another long day of rehearsals tomorrow.”
            “Right, of course.” As they headed to the doors, Emilia waved, “The two of you look amazing. I can’t wait to see you do it for a real show.” Scarlet shrunk away from the compliment, but it was hard to tell from across the room if embarrassment or nerves were behind her reaction. However, it was clear that Javier would be there to support her no matter what. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss as Talia escorted Emilia outside.
            The crowds outside were thinning, but that didn’t stop Emilia from reveling in whatever the excitement they came across. Some people were waiting for their food truck orders while others played instruments in the streets for passersby as well as their own amusement. “Wow, this town is so vibrant at night. I wish I was able to enjoy it more.” She looked up at Talia, whose eyes were focused elsewhere. Taken aback, Emilia averted her gaze and they walked the rest of the way back in silence. The opportunity to discuss her routine was within her grasp, but she couldn’t bring herself to take it. Talia seemed so carefree and happy when she was dancing earlier, the happiest she’d seen her in weeks, and she didn’t want to ruin it.
            When they reached her building, Emilia looked across the way at the row of one-story homes. It had become an automatic reflex for her after several mornings of having Juan Paulo as her escort. She’d reach the bottom of the complex’s staircase the moment he was locking his residence and they would meet in the middle of the street. As she studied it with an uncertain tentativeness, Talia did a double take, “What is it?”
            “It’s strange… I mean, I know JP is crazy talented as a songwriter, but he usually isn’t up this late. His house is the only one with the inside lights still on.” At the sound of his name, Talia’s ankles buckled, but she forced herself to remain standing. She casually swept over the series of houses with identical stucco facades, but each with a different colored roof. Juan Paulo’s was a distinct turquoise and unlike the others that were dark inside, it had a soft yellow glow. “Well, good night, Talia. Seven o’clock, right?”
            Not turning her head, she replied, “Sure. That would be perfect, thank you.” The clattering of Emilia’s ankle boots against the metal staircase of her building echoed in the distance until it disappeared completely. The street was completely deserted and even the voices in the distance seemed to be getting further away.
            Talia swallowed. She started pacing as every doubt bubbled to the surface of her subconscious. Javier had said Juan Paulo called off their show without explanation and had been here all night, but doing what? The only people in this town who were still awake in their homes at this time of night were in her line of work. It’d only been a week since they last saw each other, but she knew from experience that men are insatiable and impatient. Was it possible he already moved on? Was the incident with Alejandro that had been an irritant for so long about to repeat itself? As much as her engrained self-preservation instinct implored her to run away, her ankles rooted her in place.
            Finally, she decided, “I used to think that old song was just a fairytale. Something we were told as children but could never become truth. Nothing ever changes because people never change. But with Juan Paulo, something is different… and I need to know why.” Shaking from the surplus of adrenaline pulsing through her veins, Talia raised her fist and knocked on the door.

***

Music: "Te Busque" by Nelly Furtado

This was my original title for the story but since Spanish isn't my first language and the subsequent text is all English, I figured it was best to change it to what it is now.
If this book actually got published, that's the only way I can see this title working.

The rough translation is "I searched for you".
The song has an English version and a Spanish version, but in both, the chorus is all in Spanish. Even before conceiving this story, I found it super beautiful and sad. And it's still one of the biggest highlights on the album for me and remains proof that music is the one universal language we all have.

Te busqué [I searched you]
debajo de las piedras [On the bottom of the rocks]
y no te encontré En la mañana fría y en [and I didn't find you in the cold morning and]
la noche te busqué [in the night I searched you]
Hasta enloquecer [until I went mad]

Pero tú [But you]
llegaste a mi vida como una luz [came into my life like a light]
Sanando las heridas de mi corazón [healing all the wounds of my heart]
Haciéndome sentir [and made me feel]
vivo otra vez feel [alive again]