We have new neighbours next door. A young couple, whose
names have been discovered thanks to the mail box at the building entrance.
As soon as they arrived, a couple of months ago, he knock at
my door asking for help. The flat had been empty for more tan half a year, and
that Devil’s machine called “The F* Heater” turned into some sort of silent
corpse impossible to get back to life. So there I went.
I remember her sitting at a table, reading a magazine. I
greeted her with a standard ‘Hola, qué tal’ (in Spanish, of course) as I was
crossing the living-room on my way to their kitchen. She raised her head and
smiled. Not a word. Ok, no matter. I gave the man the explanations needed to
make the heater work, turned it on after several attempts and many swearing
words, and went back home saying good-bye. Another smile. ‘Strange’, I thought,
‘maybe she’s feeling embarrased, but I see no reason for that.’
Days later I could see a huge envelope placed on the mail
boxes at the building entrance. “Ms Joanne Collins. Wherever Street blah blah…”.
So that was it. My new neighbour is not Spanish, and as far
as I’m concerned, taking into consideration that I no longer met her but I can
hear her talking sometimes, she doesn’t speak Spanish. Her couple does, as well
as English, and we have a chat from time to time when we meet together in the
street. But for some reason it looks like she was living in another universe.
At a moment, I thought it could be nice –and good for me as
well- if I could change some words in English with them both, I’d have no problem
with that and any topic would do, but… Would she feel embarrased?
Or actually would
I?
