Clara

I suppose I will never know for sure whether she felt the same way about me. I never told her about my feelings. We had been together during four years, as friends that is, well, not even as friends, only as classmates throughout high school. That was a happy time; at least for me. As the Balaguer’s regime kept persecuting and assassinating the dissidents, with impunity, I grew into a man in the seventies, oblivious to those atrocities, sheltered by my family, my religious faith, and ignorance. Music, movies, books, and school filled my life in my beautiful little village, as I like to call Santiago, my birthplace.
     We all adored Mrs. Vélez, our beloved Mathematics teacher. We all (at least the boys) had sexual fantasies about the González sisters, who happened to be our Humanities and Science teachers, respectively. And of course, we could not take our eyes off the thighs of Valentina, and Imelda. That was the time of the mini-skirts. They wore them to extremes.
     Clara and I used to talk a lot, about academic matters. In a way, she revolved around me, because I was a dedicated student, and she needed help with some subjects. But that was all. She was not attractive in the flashy provocative way that some of the other girls were. She was simply graceful, and classy. I yearned for her company all the time; to have her in front of me; to listen to her mellow voice; to see me reflected in her dreamy dark eyes; and while I talked to her, perhaps imagine that I was touching her long black hair. She was one or two years older than I, and (at least I thought so) out of my league, as we say now. After secondary school I never saw her again.
     An old classmate whom I saw recently told me she had immigrated to the United States, and that she was a police officer in New York City. It’s hard for me to imagine such a delicate girl being a cop in such a rough place. On the funny side, many times I have felt the urge to drive the eight hundred kilometres that separate us, and on Fifth Avenue, break the glass of a showcase, break the law, and be arrested. Provided Clara is the arresting officer that will be fine by me.

© William Almonte Jiménez, 2016