Elastic Love

The sound of repetitive soft thuds hitting the kitchen counter echo among the small upstairs loft of the Velasquez House. Sabrina could see her soon to be lover tampering around the corner occasionally through the small bedroom doorway as she shifts to a peaceful awareness from her daily mid-day recess of life. She had nowhere near the energy that Alex has regularly, particularly because she was six years older than him at the matured age of 33. This probable and characteristic ruckus was but a norm for her. During one of the finite spans that she had let her eyes remain closed. She heard in a very charged and frankly annoying voice...

“This bagel dough feels so good babe, literally look at how flexible it is.” as he stretches and reforms this ball of bread dough that had a modest sheen and bounce between his palms with marvelous form.

“I’m sure it is babe, when is dinner gonna be ready babe. I’m getting really hungry...” she said with a querulous and smirky attitude amidst her tired mumbles.

He simply raised his eyebrows twice and scuttled away into the kitchen. She could hear pans and plugs declare their action across the loft, the place was not all that large; however, it was all that she could afford for the time being. She contemplated in distraction the mistakes that led her to this stage in life. She long since had a dream of the perfect life, with the perfect man, in a perfect house, living her perfect life. Imagining the divorce of an eight-year marriage, and an abusive relationship she had suffered, she really wondered if this relationship was something that could be the real deal. Before the dark thoughts could consume her too much, Alex arrives with a breakfast meal fit for a king and queen. The plate consisted of two breakfast bagel sandwiches equipped with perfectly cooked over hard eggs, two slices of bacon each, and a gooey layer of edge crisped parmesan cheese. Accompanying the sandwiches were bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers filled with cream cheese.

“Oh my god babe! We shouldn’t be allowed to eat food this food.” she says gleefully.

“What do you even mean?” he replies with an intrinsic curiosity.

“It’s literally too good, I feel spoiled.” she says back.

“Well, it is all or nothing for my baby blue, baby blue.” he says back

With their stomachs filled to the brim, foreheads emitting a sweat of satisfactory toil, they lay about in bed unsure of their next step for this turbulent weekend.

“Why don’t we go get some wine, I really want to drink.” she says gazing with desperation.

“I’m not really a fan but just because it is a special weekend, I think I can let it slide.” he reluctantly replies even though there was nothing inherently special about the weekend. He was sincerely in an addled state from unconfessed love. Alex was deeply in love with Sabrina even though they had only been dating for about a month. Taking time to do anything was not something that he was very accomplished at because of his immense OCD.

As they walk down her fathers dilapidated stairway debating the functional and spiritual differences between their respective Astrological Signs, the Virgo and the Scorpio, they hear a familiar hubbub of chatter in the backyard where the stairwell exits to. They encounter a circle gathered party of unprosperous individuals arguing in Spanish over a game of dominoes. The wet and rained upon yard, littered with trash and wood, which was presumably for the bonfire raging about under an old canopy that had smoke deposits residing in the apex of its shape like a burn-scarred tree. Walking through the mud and rock, they had discovered a pile of weathered trash, which could only be described as big as a car next to an overfilled 90-gallon city trash can. The lot of these folk producing this trash were older people down on their luck, given a small space in the sheds by Sabrina’s father. He wasn’t exactly of well mind, and was acting out of good faith of his heart to provide a place to stay for these people who have not the luxury for their own home or space to earn themselves for multiple reasons. These people didn’t bother Alex so much, but had hurt Sabrina to even look at because all she could see was abuse towards her father's fortune and property.

Away from the ruckus and rain, they sit secretively in Alex’s truck with blacked out windows. They breathe a sigh of relief, ignoring the rampant barking of their three ferocious meager chihuahuas that pierces with just enough precision to perforate the truck’s window sealing. While he was situating his personal effects among the compartments in the middle console, he pulled out a little black book, leaving a trail of moisture among the leather cover from his wet hands.

“Can you hold onto this babe. I’ve been wanting to get that inside for some time.” he asked her unnoticed as she puts it in her purse without much thought. While he drove towards the local grocer, she pulls out the book in curiosity. It appeared to be just a little memo book of earnest words to her upon examination, where one quote caught her mind indefinitely. It read “May your thoughts remain humble and your actions remain true to the identity of reverence. Be like bagel dough, in the way that you will never lose your shape, and can be flexible in the understanding of your surrounding environment through elasticity. So that you can fill your mind with abundant peace and security that hopefully you did the right thing and will continue to do so” quoted with several question marks.

“Who came up with this quote babe?” she asked bewildered in slight awe.

“I don’t know, it just came to mind because it be the way that it does. It sounded nice and so I wanted to remember it.” he replied. Pausing for a second he says afterwards “I just really think it is important to assess yourself daily, and so I write some things that mean a lot to me every day in this book. I try to keep them related to having a good nature about yourself.” ending his sentence with a reluctant smirk.

While Alex had went into the store to pick up a few essential ingredients to make some food and acquire a box of wine. Sabrina had walked over to the corner market to pick up a couple of lottery tickets for no apparent reason. Sticking to the topic in mind she chooses two of the tickets that had a farm picture on them, costing her a couple of dollars per; Perhaps, because it reminded her of peace and serenity in the countryside.

After their journey home through the rain scattered roads, the little storm had seemed to proceed to another region. Parking on the main street of their withered family home, they get out and they trod through the dirty sideway back to the smoke permeated backyard. They open the back gate becoming illuminated with many noises distinguishing from nearby drunken garbled banter, and yaps with woofs from afar upstairs. Alex, filled with a sense of homeliness, retrieves a half a dozen or so oranges from his shopping bags and tosses each bum an orange, dismissing him and his girlfriend with a kind gesture of a nod. Which from what Alex could tell, Sabrina was definitely not happy about.

As they sat themselves down inside, Sabrina retrieves the lottery tickets from the innards of her unorganized purse and hands Alex one saying... “You really shouldn’t feed them, they do nothing but endorse stealing and destroying my dad’s property. Give anybody else food if you’re going to do that. They get it for free...” ending with an annoyed gasp for air after her quick rhapsody.

Much to their surprise after they both scratch off their tickets, Alex and Sabrina had both won 10,000 dollars. Upon the revealing of Alex’s astronomical victory against the odds of numeric wager, he burst up into a splendorous rage, swinging his fist in rampant enjoyment and revel. She, temporarily distracted and unaware of his winning, focused on the narrow tunnel visioning divulgence of the scratching carbon, becoming aware that she had won 10,000 dollars as well. She jumps up and hugs Alex with such a mighty force. Rhythmically jumping in joy, Alex stops and says... “We have to go collect our money and... and... move out and get a place or something! We can use this money to seriously do something! This is our chance babe!”

She quickly grabs all three of her dogs, not even on a leash. As Alex grabbed all of their important life documents and keys, along with the lottery tickets in his backpack. Alex and Sabrina rushed down the stairs not even locking their door in a scurry. Before they exited the gate in a rush to Alex’s truck, he stopped and declared...

“Hombres! May your thoughts remain humble and your actions remain true to the identity of reverence. Be like bagel dough, in the way that you will never lose your shape, and can be flexible in the understanding of your surrounding environment through elasticity. So that you can fill your mind with abundant peace and security that hopefully you did the right thing and will continue to do so. Please stay safe friends. I’ll kind of miss you.” as he left into the night with his fair lady Sabrina...