Volver

Some kilometers above the earth I was facing one of the greatest blend of feelings I have had in my life: To return home after a long journey that took me living in 3 different countries, visit more than 30 cities in 3 years and 3 months.
As the plane approached the Caribbean coast on a splendid sunny Wednesday, In the distance, I could recognize the tropical surface of my home land. This has been a long awaited moment and finally it was becoming true. I would definitely need some support. I asked for another whiskey.

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Dear reader, let me embrace you in a wonderful tale of a fascinating lifetime before I put my story back to Earth. Probably the best thing I can offer you for this unexpected twist of my post is this song in the background. The song is "La Noyée" from the movie "Amelie" from Yann Tiersen. No soundtrack can fit better this enchantment of poor literature. Listen to it twice and continue reading while it plays. It works good for me.
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Its been 3 years full of experiences, some of them sad, some of them amazing, some of them of an euphoric moments of victory, great tastes of an exquisite world, a perfume of places, a blur of faces turning and going up and down like in a Waltz dance; a bubble filled of human voices and trains moving on the railway. The smell of airports and a recently opened suitcase.
I picture myself running behind a train going to a sunny field, each wagon carry a lot of people: all the people I've met in this journey. They wave their hands to me. I run faster. On the train sides there is colors, there is music, there is a feeling in my soul of an unbreakable silent of gratitude. This train stops in an old station where the walls are high and there is plenty of mosaics and the windows are decorated with great micro sculptures of angels of the Roman Empire time. I can see the great design of the floor while I move towards the exit of the station. There are kids selling newspapers and candies. The people walks so graceful in all directions. I can hear the sound of the footsteps and the fresh air of the sea ventilating the big hall. The door is just in front of me. The fresh air fills my lungs, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Slowly I can feel how a warm energy is filling me. The Waltz continues; the melody is inside of me now. The big halls turns transparent each time. I keep the air in my lungs and then I let it go by exhaling slowly. I open my eyes, put my tie in place, hold harder my luggage case and put my feet together. It is time to go.
There is a song of Carlos Gardel named "volver" (to return) and comes like:
Tengo miedo del encuentro con el pasado que vuelve a enfrentarse con mi vida.
Tengo miedo de las noches que pobladas de recuerdos encadenen mi soñar.
Pero el viajero que huye, tarde o temprano detiene su andar;
Y aunque el olvido que todo lo destruye, haya matado mi vieja ilusión,
Guardo escondida una esperanza humilde que es toda la fortuna de mi corazón.
Which translates:
I'm afraid of the meeting with the past that comes back to face my life.
I'm afraid of the nights that full of memories enchains my dreams.
But the traveler that flees, soon or later stops its march;
And even though the forgetfulness that everything destroys, had killed my old illusion,
I hold hidden a humble hope that is all the fortune of my heart.

At this very moment in the airplane I was having and invisible hand holding my heart that pulled out a couple of tears. There was, in front of my eyes, the precious land I can finally call "home". The life has finally brought me in one piece back home. Back to my family and friends. Back to these feelings that has been worned out after many recalls from the most remote corners I've been in this world.
Home. Such a meaningful and important word. There was no fit for its meaning on me for the very moment in which the plane landed. My bag didn't arrive with me, and due to a big damage to the highway that leads to the airport my parents didn't arrive on time to pick me up. I went out of the airport with merely my hand luggage and a empty reception hall. The tropical weather was just too hot, I forgot how hard it was. The whiskey was finally having an effect on me. I made the report for the lost luggage and after a fair moment of distress I looked towards the clean sky I just came from; I smiled silently and went upstairs where in few minutes I would meet my parents. At last!