A New York Romance (8 page)

“Then why did you tell me?” Julie asked.

“Besides you continuously pestering me about it?” Charlie said jokingly, but it felt mean. “No, I…I don’t know.”

“I think it’s simply the human in you,” she responded.

“What do you mean?”

“We all want someone to share ourselves with. We want to be noticed by at least one other person on this planet in a special way. To be completely accepted by someone, like I was with my father.” She sipped her latté then continued. “Maybe that is what is so wrong with relationships today. People are so busy…you know, they never really look at each other. You accept people for who they are, but I think you want someone to accept you completely for who you are. Perhaps you’re more human than you would like to admit.”

“Perhaps,” he pondered the possibility for a moment, “but my humanness is only temporary,” he said, seeming to give her his full attention again.

“So is mine,” she replied. These three words grabbed his attention more than anything else. Suddenly he didn’t feel so different from her, so different from all the people around him in the café who sipped their mochas and latté’s just like him, who were temporarily human, just like him.

“Do you want to know what human love is like?” Julie asked as if she believed for a moment that he was a god in human form that needed the experience explained to him.

Charlie looked into the seriousness of her beautiful, green eyes, “Tell me.”

He listened intently.

“The most I can say about true love, or at least what I think true love is, is that it happens when you know someone is looking at you and sees all your imperfections as well as your perfections and doesn’t judge you because of them,” she said as she remembered the way her father looked at her. The way the couple in the café looked at each other. “The person just accepts you completely for who you are.” Then she thought of her love relationships, especially Brian, and said, “That’s what happens when two strangers first meet and they feel deeply attracted to each other. They get a glimpse of true love and are flooded with ideas that they cannot live without this person. But slowly they get to know each other. They become aware of the perfections and the imperfections. That’s when they start judging. They discriminate between what they like and dislike about the person. That is when the state of true love stops being true love. They feel love when they see the other person’s perfections, but fall out of love a minute later when they see the things they do not like about them. That’s when the love stops coming out of their heart and they focus on the love that is coming toward them. They begin to feel this person is not giving them what they need, what they want, and is not the right person for them. But they hang onto the relationship because they are afraid to be alone or the relationship has become part of their daily routine. They think this is the best they can do so they stick it out until it becomes unbearable. That is human love, Charlie.”

“And that is why Air Supply writes sad love songs,” he replied. He sipped his mocha. “Thank you, Juliet,” he added with a quiet sadness.

“You’re welcome.”

Their eyes remained locked in a silent stare. They didn’t know how much time had passed, but it was the longest they looked at each other before the feeling of awkwardness set in.

When they were finished eating, the waitress brought the bill to the table. Charlie left her a generous tip and the wish for happiness. From there, he and Julie walked aimlessly around the city, more interested in each other than in sightseeing.

Charlie, feeling relaxed, said, “You were right. I do feel better now that I let my secret out and you don’t think I am crazy because of it.”

“I think if you really want to know what human love is like, you have to experience it for yourself. How else will you really know what you are helping people find?” she asked. “You’re like a car salesman who has never had a driver’s license,” she laughed. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Julie turned away.

Charlie had a thoughtful mind and a kind heart, but Julie really did not want to get involved. Something inside her said to turn away, to not get too comfortable in that silence. She thought he was perhaps the kindest person she ever met, Cupid or not, but she was not attracted to him in a physical way, despite his relatively youthful, handsome appearance, hidden behind that brown corduroy coat and unkempt hair. She had always been attracted to the dangerous looking, bad boy type. She wanted the sense of danger, yet to be treated the way she knew Charlie would treat her. What was she thinking anyway? She had only known him a couple days and he claimed to have caused a bus crash with his thoughts, jumped off a building, and now claimed to be the god, Cupid. She turned her attention away from these thoughts.

“Charlie?”

“Yes, Juliet?”

“I have one more question for you,” she said.

“What is it?” he waited patiently.

“If you’re Cupid…I mean when you took human form, where did you get the name Charlie Daniels?”

“I chose the name.”

“You chose the name Charlie Daniels?” she asked in disbelief, wondering why anybody but Charlie Daniels would want the name Charlie Daniels.

“Yes, I chose it. My friend mentioned the name before, something about a song written about him. I liked it,” he explained.

“You mean
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
by the Charlie Daniels Band? The song about Johnny betting his soul for a fiddle of gold?”

“Yes, that’s the one,” he said with a sincere smile on his face. She could tell he was relaxed on the city streets again among the blaring horns and crowds of people, or was he so focused on her that he didn’t even notice the city?

“Your friend mentioned the song was written about him? Are you friends with Johnny?” she asked using a semi-sarcastic tone, thinking his stories were getting a little too far out of hand.

“No, I mean, well,” he stumbled for words, “I met Johnny. He’s a nice guy and all, but I would not say we’re close. After all, he did take my friend’s fiddle.”

“Your ‘friend’s fiddle?’ You mean the Devil? You’re friends with the Devil?”

“He does not like that title very much,” Charlie whispered, as if the Devil himself might hear. “He goes by Mephistopheles these days. It is much more contemporary and low key for him. He does not like all the attention.”

“You’re saying you’re friends with the Devil, I mean Mephistopheles, the ruler of Hell? And that the song
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
is a true story?”

“Oh yes, it is very true but he doesn’t steal souls. No one can control another person’s soul. He’s been a good friend of mine for a long, long, long time.”

“But you help people love each other and he’s, well he’s the Devil,” she whispered as if the Mephistopheles himself might hear her. “How can you be friends with
him
?”

They entered the park. Charlie looked up at the giant trees. Despite their height, the buildings still formed the skyline behind them.

“Oh, you humans got it all wrong,” he explained. “You see, Mephistopheles was not the only god, or angel, to get angry with God about all the suffering on Earth, in fact we all did, just as you humans do. But he’s really not a bad guy.”

“If he’s not a bad guy then why is he ruling Hell?” Julie asked encouraging the unbelievable story.

“Well, somebody had too.” Charlie paused remembering her humanness. He understood where she was coming from, the limitation of her modern day perception of it all, and he continued. “Oh, I know what you are thinking. I studied a little bit of your religions. You humans got it all wrong. Mephistopheles was given dominion over Hell like you humans were given dominion over the Earth. He didn’t create it and he does not rule it with an iron fist, as you might think. Perhaps if you humans held your dominion over the Earth better, focused on love rather than getting what you want in the world, there would be no Hell.”

There was a long silence. He had a point.

She stopped and faced him as if she had something more to say, but said nothing. The sun was sinking fast but the city was alive with lights, traffic, and the voices of people stirring in the streets. They stood there facing each other in silence, oblivious to the chaotic existence all around them, as if they stood in a beautiful meadow with nothing but the soft breeze and night crickets to distract their senses.

“It’s getting late. It doesn’t look like I’m leaving tonight.”

“I’ll get you another hotel room,” Charlie offered.

“It’s okay; I’ll stay with you again. I enjoy our conversations,” Julie smiled. “Besides, the spider room isn’t that scary and it’s nice not being alone. All our stuff is there, too.”

Charlie said nothing. The passing car lit up Julie’s face to Charlie’s delight. They both began to realize how cold it was now.

After they ate they arrived at the motel. Julie changed her clothes and they silently crawled into separate beds. Charlie lay awake with his head to the side staring out the window, trying to see the stars hidden behind a veil of streetlights and headlights.

Julie stared at the ceiling and quietly asked, “Why do you think true love is so hard to find these days? I mean, why is it so hard to figure out?”

Charlie rolled on his back and said, “True love is not for the intellect to know, it is something you experience, something you feel, something you become with every part of your being. I tell you, you cannot find true love in a single relationship until you fill yourself with love for all things.”

Julie rolled onto her side and faced him, “Tell me as best you can. Tell me what true love is like, Charlie.”

He remained on his back, staring at the cracks in the dark ceiling above and said, “If you listen to a great symphony, every note is perfect in what it is doing. The melody could not be what it is unless the chords are what they are. In a great symphony, there is no note that is better than the other. But people don’t know how to listen. They only hear the melody and think it is beautiful. When they listen to the notes on their own it does not sound the same. The same is true for love. You may catch a glimpse of true love when you first meet someone, a moment of timelessness where you rest completely in no judgment of anything or anyone, but when you try to focus all your love on one person or expect to receive all the love you need from that one person, it falls apart. To let true love last, you must fall in love with all things, your enemies as well as your friends, just like a great composer loves every note of the symphony equally.

“But people don’t know how to listen,” he said again. “They get caught up in the attractiveness of the melody or the darkness of the bass. True love is like emptying yourself and absorbing every note individually and the oneness of them all at the same time.”

“That’s beautiful, Charlie,” she said.

He turned to face her. “Life is like a great symphony and nothing is more important than anything else, including angels, humans, enemies, friends, animals, bugs, even spiders,” he added with laughter, “or the dust on the street. All of it is endowed with the Great Composer’s gifts. What you do to one note, no matter how insignificant it appears to be, you do to the whole symphony.”

Charlie faced the ceiling again. There was a moment of silence and Charlie thought of Mephistopheles again and said to Julie, as if thinking out loud, “Of course if there was no Hell, Mephistopheles would have to get a new job. I’m not sure what else he is qualified for; he has been ruling Hell for as long as humans have been going there. But I am sure he could find something. He is very creative.”

“Oh?” Julie wondered as she turned to lie on her back and listen, folding her arms in the coldness of the room.

“He’s very good at chess. Of course everyone knows how well he plays the fiddle. But he mostly enjoys the classics like Giuseppe, Claude, Felix, Ludwig, and Bela. Oh, how he loved to hear Bela. Such beautiful music.”

Julie was drifting off to sleep. Charlie laid there and listened to the music in his head. He could recall every note from every symphony from memory.

He felt more comfortable around her as he began to let his true, brighter, spirited colors show. He no longer felt like he had to hide in the shadows to conceal his true identity. But part of Julie felt a great distance from him even while lying in the bed next to his. How could she feel close to him? Although he was kind and harmless, she still knew nothing about him except that he had a wild imagination.

The next morning Julie noticed the difference in Charlie. He appeared as if a great weight was lifted off his shoulders. His secret was out. Whether she believed it or not was another matter, but simply because he told someone that which he kept inside himself for so long, he was freer, livelier, more comical, and open to share other dimensions of himself that were previously shadowed.

She has heard many lies from boys over the years. Although Charlie’s claim to be Cupid was indeed the most unusual, it seemed honest. He did not appear to have an ulterior motive, like the boys who claimed to be wealthy or were in the middle of a big acting break or record contract. He seemed to want nothing from her but her company, even figuratively pushing her away when she got too close.

She knew he was a little strange. Surely he had some kind of psychic ability, too. But Cupid? That was just ridiculous. However, he was harmless enough, and besides, as she thought before, what was a young aspiring actress to do in New York City with no money and no place to stay? Charlie seemed to have an unlimited supply of money for basic needs and then some. Also, he was fun and a gentleman at all times, and so one more day turned into a few days.

He loved Central Park. He acted like a little kid, enjoying the narrow paths that twisted through the snow-covered hills. He watched with detail the birds that rested in the naked trees. He seemed fascinated with the ice that hung from the stone hills, as if he was from the south and never saw a northern winter before.

Julie noticed the way he looked at these things, as if he was seeing them for the first time. At night he stared at the few stars that were not hidden by the city lights. He looked at the stars as if he was fascinated by them over and over again. He never seemed to take them for granted and while they seemed insignificant to most people, the view of the stars brought him much joy. There was something simple yet profound about him that Julie could not place or understand, but the more she watched him, the more she felt it. She was attracted to it, yet the strangeness of it all also kept her heart at a distance.

The last snow had fallen and the days were getting warmer but still chilly. They enjoyed spending their time exploring the city. She noticed the way he often took off his shoes and placed them by the door when entering quiet buildings such as libraries, museums, and even carpeted offices. She could not help but laugh at his playfulness; his harmless, childish antics he occasionally and unknowingly took too far.

On one occasion Julie turned to find him wading through a public fountain in his bare feet despite the coldness of the water. He splashed the children walking by who vicariously smiled at him, knowing that if they stepped in the fountain their parents would scold them.

“You need to get out of there, sir,” a security guard suddenly warned him. Charlie just stood there in the water out of his reach. He lifted some water in the palm of his hand. Then he lightly tossed it underhand toward the security guard, grinning as it fell upon his left shoulder and poured down the chest of his jacket. Not only did Charlie act like a child, he acted as if the security guard was a child to play with.

“Get out of there now, sir,” he repeated placing one foot on the edge of the fountain after watching the water drip off his lapel. “This is your last warning.”

Charlie stared him down taunting his opponent in some game inside his head. He pulled his middle finger into his palm and covered it with his thumb. The other fingers were stretched out as the tension built up and he flicked the surface of the water. The drops were catapulted through the air landing sparingly on the guard’s face and chest signaling the start of the battle.

The guard quickly leaned over the edge to grab Charlie but his polished shoes were no match for the slick marble surface and he fell into the pool of water. Even the children who watched with their mothers were too shocked to laugh. More security guards surrounded the fountain as the one chased him around the inside under the falling water. Charlie jumped out of the fountain and the others began to chase him in circles. Julie suddenly became amused with it all as the children laughed at the smile on Charlie’s face as he dodged the guards, jumping over the benches, pretending he was reading the paper until they caught up to them. He jumped back on the edge of the fountain, balancing on the wet marble edge while guards chased him below. He ran around it once then to everyone’s surprise he voluntarily jumped into one of the security guard’s arms.

Julie grabbed one of the guards by the arm and turned him around. She stood on her toes and whispered into his ear.

Charlie kept the smile on his face as the guard put him down. He stood there staring at the colorful parachutes that appeared in the sky as the plane passed. They drifted above the trees of the park in front of a canopy of white fluffy clouds. The people watched Charlie watching them, as if unconcerned or unaware of the trouble he was in.

“Okay, release him.”

“What?” the guard soaked in fountain water questioned.

“He’s free to go,” the guard said, and then he turned to Julie and whispered, “Just get him out of here.”

“What did you tell him that convinced him to let me go,” Charlie asked Julie as they walked away, glancing back at the parachutes falling behind the trees. The wet guard was complaining in the background to the others.

“I told them you thought you were Cupid.”

“So he believes in me,” Charlie thought out loud. “He let me go because I’m Cupid?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Julie agreed knowing that the guard believed he was mentally ill, but harmless.

In Charlie’s mind love was the fabric that held things together. Love kept chaos from reigning. In times when the world lacked great love, such things as war, famine, and natural disasters covered the Earth. Love was always on Charlie’s mind, not in the form of thoughts; he simply dwelled in the feeling of it. Love was who he was, what he had become from dwelling in it so often. He did not have worries running through his mind like most people. His mind was mostly empty, but he was always aware of his surroundings. As they walked down the streets, Charlie radiated a wish of love to every person he passed, and back at the security guard soaked in water.
He
was given the rest of the day off which he spent with his wife. She had been feeling neglected by him, but not this day. In fact when he arrived home soaked with unfiltered city water he told her about falling in the fountain while chasing some wacko off his meds. She made him soup while he showered. Then he told the story of the idiot again, shared some laughs at Charlie’s expense, then reminisced about their own memories. Their joy was contagious to each other and a romance was rekindled. None of which would have happened without the wacko idiot who thought himself to be Cupid.