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somewhere over the rainbow (and other stories)

  Exactly two years ago I found myself flying through a corner of a rainbow, and landed in Oaxaca, Mexico. It was the last film festival I traveled to, a brutal and sweet experience in the harshest of realities, trying to wrap my arms around the slipperiest industry and failing magnificently. Surrounded by fresh faces and eager eyes I ran from the rooms and into the street time and again, wandering off with the camera in my bag as a companion. I took pictures of a blind man that sang on the same corner every day, of wedding parades, of an old woman waiting to see the dentist.  Literally somewhere over the rainbow, I met the ugliest answers to questions I had been dragging my feet towards for years. Cramming the most delicious food into my mouth, joking at the nightly rooftop cocktail parties, grinning like the Cheshire Cat it was all coming to an end. Actually, it had ended before it even started though - and on the plane back to New York and finally Moscow the bone-crunching undertow

one eye, two slices

There is nothing remarkable about the day. Another dance between questions and clients, materials, fonts, software, scripts and rewrites. I figure out what to make us for lunch. I put some pants on at one point, as rain splatters the windows and the air turns cool.

E turns a tiny chair into a post office and leaves folded papers there for me to open. They are birthday cards, glued shut with a smear of plastilene. They say things like "I luv you so much happy birthday p.s. i gave you a prezent". There is a hand-drawn ballerina with freckles that falls to the floor when I open it.


The hour arrives to shower and get dressed, to cram paper and pens into a bag. E decides to wear a sparkly purple dress with sneakers that blink. We take the metro, changing trains and exiting through the same station that used to lead to the office. We turn left, and walk for a few minutes.

Here is a museum, and an exhibit of modern paintings. I pay, and we walk inside, her hand dangling from mine, her neck craning forwards as we wander through rooms. She stands in front of each canvas, one foot propped on its edge, her hands turning. She reads the little cards next to them, and says nothing. She looks up at me sometimes, a smile turning the corners of her mouth. I ask if she wants to know something about them and she nods yes. I explain who Pirosmani is, and how he painted on cardboard, and wood and anything he could find. She nods, as I tell her how he paid for his dinner with paintings, and that was how he survived.

Old women sit in chairs, leaning to see if E will try to touch anything. She does once, but they do not see her. They smile bland smiles at us as we go from room to room.

"I think I saw enough." E tells me after twenty minutes.
"Ok." I say, trying to figure out where the exit is.
We turn into one room and there is no hallway from it, a dead end. E stands in front of one last painting. I ask her what it says, as there are words scribbled on it. She shrugs her shoulders.
I think it says something about a beast, or a creature with one eye.




Outside, we sit on a park bench. A pigeon shits and it falls on my shoulder. E erupts in laughter as I pull the white shirt off and try to wash it with the water left in her bottle.
"Whattayagonna do?" She says, shrugging her shoulders.
"You know this means good luck, right?" I tell her.
She makes a face.
"Come on, and on my birthday?" I say. "That is amazing."
I call N, who is close but in traffic.
"It means a lot of money." She says.
She will park soon, and we will sit in a restaurant on a veranda. Friends will come. A bottle of wine will be opened. More gifts, toasts, plates of pkhali and lobiani, mchadi and sulguni, khinkali and lulia kebab. The hour will grow late and E will have curled up on the sofa.
No, no candles in a restaurant dessert. Just home.

The next day, E says we still need to make a cake.
"You aren't older until you blow out the candles." She tells me.
Late that night, I do make a cake. Olive oil instead of butter, cloves, fresh ginger, coriander seeds, nutmeg, ground almonds, honey and nine sour plums. By the time it is cooked, E has gone to sleep again. N plants two candles in it, still warm and does her best Marilyn Monroe. I wish she sang more often. Her voice is sweet and kind.
I make my wish.
I eat two slices.


Comments

Uncle Al said…
A simply beautiful bithrday
Uncle Al said…
A simply beautiful Birthday
liv said…
Oh, Marco. It's your Birthday and you give us such a gift! That picture of you and E is stunning!! I love it and will keep it here where I write to see it everyday. She looked so sweet with all her curiosity and her vibrant little mind starring at that canvas. She has art so deep inside her - so creative she is.

And I could smell the cake! Hope the wish comes true! You know I do. Happy, Happy Birthday to YOU!
katie eggeman said…
That cake looked luscious, Happy Birthday.
Sarah said…
Happy Birthday Marco! So glad you had a good day.
Happy Birthday. From me AND the pigeon...
Mely said…
Happy Birthday Marco! She is growing so tall and wise as the same time.

I will have to bake a cake like that tonight.

May your wishes come true.

Mely

Mrs. Munchkin said…
Happy Birthday!

We have made our move to Moscow from sunny Florida! Dont be surprised if a stranger (thats me) comes up to say hi if i see you :-) Still enjoy your entries....

Many birthday blessings!!
mosaikmum said…
A beautiful post and accompanying photos!
Unknown said…
Happy Belated Birthday Marco! I love your photos of you and your daughter. The cake looked delicious! Hope you had a wonderful and blessed day with all your friends and E.
Best wishes for the year ahead from here in NZ! :-D
Marco North said…
thanks Lunchbox and Liv and Banker Chick and Sarah and Aisha and Mely and of course Uncle Al and Mosaikmum from the land down under and Mrs. Munchkin (welcome to the madhouse if you are already here).

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