The sun was shining on the water making it look like quick silver. Adam loved the heat of the sun warming up his skin and the faint breeze caressing his face.
This truly was Paradise.
He listened to the noises surrounding him. People laughing and talking in many different languages, children playing, birds screeching overhead, all accompanied by the constant background noise of the waves crashing on the shore, followed by the sound of the stones hitting each other, as they rolled with the waves back into sea.
‘This is the life!’ Adam whispered to himself inhaling the salty air.
His peace was short-lived though as his stomach started rumbling, and if anything, Adam did not wear hunger well. He tried to bear it for a bit longer to prolong the enjoyment of the beach, but the moment was gone, the peaceful feeling had fled and he could not recapture it.
Adam sat up and dug deep into his backpack for his wallet. Twenty-two euros, that was his entire fortune. His hunger consumed him more when he was faced with his meager resources. It will have to be a loaf of bread and a large bottle of milk, or maybe just the bread so he does not go under twenty euro.
The day suddenly felt overcast and the heat stifling.
Adam got up and walked to a supermarket only five minutes away on the other side of the boardwalk. When he first got here he was fascinated by the fact that you could still see the sea from the grocery aisle, that was top. Now he just felt a pang of hunger thinking of all the food he will have to pass by and not be able to buy.
Paradise can feel oppressive on a hungry stomach.
Adam bought his bread and sat down to eat it on a shaded bench, while watching the well dressed, comfortable tourists passing him by. Many had around their wrists, or on their backpacks, cruise liners bracelets or tags. Adam thought wistfully how wonderful it must be to be in a place where every need you have is met, every whim, fulfilled. Paradise.
Adam could not even imagine how that would feel. His hunger started to subside and he felt a bit better, but still, he had to find a way to improve his financial status. Adam felt so tired, so overwhelmed by the need for money that he found himself hating the fact he needed to work in any way for it. He hated his dependence on money and as he watched an old woman relaxing in a chaise-longue in the large balcony of one of the imposing buildings flanking the boardwalk, Adam felt he hated her too.
She was so old and shriveled, most likely barely had the ability to enjoy that wonderful place, while he was young and vital, he had everything going for him, he could appreciate the world around him. It was him that should be lounging on the balcony with passers by admiring his beauty.
Adam felt he hated the old woman with an intensity he had not known before, and a thought crept into his mind. What if he found himself an old woman like that? Not for sex, don’t be creepy! Just to take care of her, to wheel her around and keep her company. He could do that, couldn’t he? And he could tell people he is her grandson or nephew, or some other relative… and she would be so fond of him, that she would leave him her apartment and a good amount of money, and then, he would be set for life free to enjoy the beach and his Paradise.
His stomach started rumbling again, this time though it felt more like pain than hunger. Adam thought with sadness about his funds. Just as he was getting up, a young woman stepped on the balcony where the old, undeserving one was resting, and put down a large tray filled with fruit and cheese, and maybe what looked like cured meats. Adam did not have time to process the image when, he saw the young woman signalling him over.
For sure this was a mirage, like people seeing water sources in the desert, his imagination was tricking him into seeing what was not there. The young woman though made a sign to him to wait and disappeared inside the apartment. Foolish dreams for foolish people, Adam thought to himself while turning to go and find his destiny.
Destiny though had other plans for Adam that day.
‘Please wait!’
The woman with the tray, well without the tray now, came running after him calling out in English, apparently it was clear he was not Spanish.
Adam turned around dumbfounded. This event was one for the books for sure.
‘Hello …’
‘Hello! My name is Ingrid, my Nanna wants to meet you.’
‘Nanna?’ it was the only thing he could think to say.
‘My grandmother. The old lady on the balcony.’ and she pointed to the balcony where now the old woman was half sitting up watching the encounter.
‘She would like to invite you to lunch, it seems you remind her of a young boyfriend she had before marrying my grandfather. She said she is one hundred percent you are Irish. And you are!’ her voice was amused and friendly.
‘That I am …’ Adam’s stomach grumbled loudly as if attempting to make up his mind.
‘What do I have to lose?’ he shrugged and made a gesture signalling he will follow her.
On the way up he was informed they were from New York, but Nanna traveled the world and always had liked it here so now, in her old age, would favor coming here as much as possible. Ingrid herself was recovering from a very messy divorce and had sworn off men, she needed time to find out who she was now, so she spent her days reading and walking with her grandmother.
Adam felt like he was in somebody else’s reality and was just along for the ride. The apartment turned out to be spectacular, something that you only saw in magazines, and the balcony was more of a terrace, but the way it was built fooled the passers by looking up from the street.
‘Nanna, here he is! You were right, he is Irish! I owe you an ice cream!’
The old woman turned to greet them and smiled broadly showing a perfect set of bought teeth.
‘Eveline.’ she put our her hand in a well practiced move.
‘Adam.’ he imitated her, and was fascinated to see that although she was very old the air about her was of a young person, even very young he would say. Her eyes, the tone of her voice, the focus with which she looked at him, she emanated confidence and peace.
‘Eat please, we can chat after during coffee, anything else you want let us know and the cook can prepare it for you.’
Adam looked back into the depths of the apartment and thought that somewhere there was a cook that took personal orders, but he did not need all that, the food in front of him was more than enough. Adam ate and Eveline picked at some grapes watching the water and the people on the beach. Ingrid had disappeared somewhere in the shadows of the room behind them.
‘This was … beyond words … thank you!’ Adam was happy, he felt like somebody up there loved him and took care of him putting in his way such a feast at the time he needed it most. He felt ashamed inside of the bad thoughts he had fostered about her before. He reconciled his feelings telling himself it was the hunger.
‘I am happy you enjoyed it! We will have cook prepare a little box for you for later. Ingrid?’ Eveline spoke the words in her normal soft tone, but somehow Ingrid still heard her and popped up in the frame of the sliding doors like an apparition.
‘Of course!’ without a word she took away the dishes and came back with two steaming cups of coffee.
‘I find coffee is best hot, even in warm places. Do you like coffee Adam?’
He was so relaxed now that he could have shared anything with her.
‘Yes, I actually really do! Where I am from, Mountmellick in Ireland, there is this small coffee shop that makes the best coffee in the world … and amazing scones.’
For the first time ever Adam felt like he missed his small town and its’ wet weather.
‘Such a funny name, Mountmellick …’
‘Yeah in Irish it is Móinteach Mílic it means the land by the river, or bog by the river … and God knows we get flooded enough times… .’ and he laughed in a strange way remembering fondly the crappy days of floods and of endless cleaning.
‘That sounds tough!’ Eveline was prompting information out of him without asking any question.
‘Yeah … it is, but the people come together in a way difficult to understand, and you feel part of this huge crowd and they bring out the best in you and you want to be better for them …’
Adam entertained Eveline with stories about his family, his town, his church and while he talked an overarching feeling of longing grew inside him. He felt the need to go home, but it was something so powerful and organic that it totally took him by surprise. He never much gave a lot of thought of the place he was from, and now he found himself desperate to go there.
Eveline understood. They had dinner, the three of them this time, and as it turned out Eveline needed a bit of painting done in the apartment. Like any true Irish man Adam was adept at anything, or at least open to give it a go, so he got the job on the spot.
As soon as he got paid Adam bought a plane ticket home, and, before leaving, he invited Eveline and Ingrid to visit. He knew his mom will forever be grateful to the people that took care of him and supported him to go home.
When he got off the plane and felt the cold Irish air welcome him his heart bounced with joy.
Sometimes Paradise is a wet, cold place.