Seeyou/ KB

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A moment to look back - 3T live forever.

As the sky was blue and the sun was out, Tariano Adaryll II Jackson took a cab to the cemetary to visit his wife Viola Jackson´s grave. He had a bouquet red roses with him...which used to be his wife´s favorite flowers.

As he went to the so well, by him, visited stone with Viola´s name on it, he noticed an old lady stand in front of it reading what the text said.

"Excuse me." he said hawking a little. "Are you sure you´re visiting the right place?"

The lady turned to him slowly. She wore a long brown skirt and a white blouse, and her hair was as short, curly and grey as Tariano´s was. She had an old and wrinkled face but she looked happy.

"I´m so sorry Mr?"

"Jackson..." Tariano answered looking at the stone in front of them. Just as the stone of my wife´s grave says.

"I´m sorry Mr. Jackson." the lady said calmly. "I just walk around here sometimes...I never really know where I´ll end up..but it usually is here. Maybe because it´s such a well-conditioned place. Always new beautiful flowers here. I love the smell of them."

"Yeah, I like to go here too." Tariano said.

He sat down on the bench, which stood close to the stone, and laid his stick on the ground.

"Mrs?..." he said looking at the lady in front of him.

"Mrs. Dawson." the lady said.

"Would you like to join me?" Tariano asked patting the bench strangely.

"Oh, sure..." Mrs. Dawson said and sat down beside him.

She looked up at the sky for a moment, lost in her own thoughts then she turned to Tariano and said, "My husband rests here also. I used to visit him so often, but now I´m too old to go any further than this."

She looked a little sad for a while.

"Me also lady...that was why I wanted my wife to rest here." Tariano said throwing the bouquet on the grave like he usually did.

"Did your life turn out to be as you wanted Mr. Jackson?" the lady asked suddenly looking down on the bouquet of roses.

"Yes, it did." Tariano answered. "I´ve had a great life....I have two brothers I´m very close to and my wife, she was just wonderful. I loved her very much. And you Mrs. Dawson? Did life turn out as you wanted?"

Mrs. Dawson smiled for herself.

"Yes, it turned out good." she said. "I had a dream when I was a young girl...I wanted to be a singer and reach fame. It never happened, but I´ve had other dreams that did come true."

"You wanted to work with music?" Tariano asked curiously. "I have worked with music my whole life....My dad Tito used to say that me and my brothers were one with it."

The lady looked strangely at him for while and then her face lit up and her old lips formed something that looked like a smile.

"Taj..." she said. "....I thought you looked familiar...."

Tariano looked at her really surprised and sat quiet for a moment..

"I haven´t been called Taj in quite a while." he said pausing for a while. "I have missed it quite a lot."

"You, Mr. Jackson....." Mrs. Dawson said more to herself than to Tariano. ".....T.J.....and.....and...." she thought a little longer... "And Taryll were in 3T."

"Yes, I was." Tariano said. He smiled shyly. "But that was a long time ago....back in the 90´s. How come you recognized me?" he asked.

The lady looked at her hands.

"I was 13 years old back in 1995, and I saw your video Anything on TV." she said. "I was caught directly." she smiled shyly. "I just loved the way you sang, and the music was just so amazing to me. I was so in love with it that nothing else seemed important to me. I remember that my mom and dad always were nagging me about that...they wanted me to see other things, realize that it was more in the world than just the music and you."

She gave Tariano a warm smile.

"I used to dream about meeting you and your brothers. I wanted so badly for you to love me back. Poor, naiv girl." she said trying to calm herself down, as she was getting a litte too excited thinking about her childhood years.

Tariano was quiet for a moment, just trying to let everything sink in.

"I didn´t knew girls felt like that." he said. "It was always so, so energetic and hysterical around us...it could be quite scary sometimes."

"I know..." Mrs. Dawson said sounding like she had experienced the same thing. "I know how it was, I was there to see it."

They sat quiet for about 10 minutes, before Mrs. Dawson asked, "And how are your brothers?"

"They´re old,....like me." Tariano smiled. "But they´re still alive." He chuckled and rattled quite some time before he continued. "T.J. doesn´t respect the fact that he is getting older, actually. He´s always out doing wild things.  The other day when me and Taryll called him for our usual Sunday lunch, he wasn´t at home. He was out the whole day, and didn´t call until late in the evening and then he told us that he had been out blading! His kids were furious, and so were Taryll and I.

Mrs. Dawson stared at him with her eyes wide open.

"Blading?! But isn´t he...?"

"71 years old, yes." Tariano said.

"Can Tito Joe blade?" Mrs. Dawson asked.

"No, he can´t, not anymore...he just bought the rollerblades and then he put them on his feet, but that was about it." Tariano replied. "It took him the whole day to find a store that actually agreed to sell blades to an old man like him."

Mrs. Dawson and Tariano laughed together.

"He has always been funny, hasn´t he?" Mrs. Dawson asked.

"Yes...he has...." Tariano smiled. "At least he has tried to be..."

"And what about your other younger brother Taryll?" Mrs. Dawson said. "How is he?"

"He´s just fine. He just got a stick like the one I have." Tariano smiled. "So, now he has something to hit me back with."

Mrs. Dawson smiled showing her perfect shaped and white dentures.

Tariano looked at her. He liked this lady´s smile at once.

"Would Mrs. Dawson like to tell me a bit about her life?" he asked looking at some clouds in the distance.

"Oh, certainly." Mrs. Dawson clucked. "I was born in Gothenburg, Sweden back in 1982. I really did like the place where I lived, but I was dreaming about moving to th US and become a famous singer." she chuckled. "Does it sound familiar to you? I´m not sure if I said this before or not."

"I don´t think you did." Tariano replied smiling. "I´m old, so I really don´t remember...continue please."

"I spent the most of my teenage life leaning over some piece of paper with a pen in my hand, just thinking and writing." Mrs. Dawson said. "I wrote many poems and songs I never found any use for, until I met Eric..." Mrs. Dawson´s eyes got a dreamy look.  "With Eric´s help I actually got a poem book published..." she continued happily.

Tariano didn´t ask who Eric was, but he figured it was her husband that had passed away.

"That sounds wonderful Mrs. Dawson." he said. "Excuse me, but I have to go now. I´m going to meet my brothers at a café to have some coffee." he said.

He picked up his stick from the ground and stood up.

Mrs. Dawson stood up she also, she didn´t need a stick yet.

Suddenly Tariano got an idea. He turned to Mrs. Dawson.

"Would you like to come with me? We could all have some great time talking memories." he said. "If you don´t have to go somewhere else?"

"No..." Mrs. Dawson answered. "I don´t have any other things to do...and I would love to have some company for today."

Tariano held his arm out a little for her to hold on to. And then they walked off, with no care in the world....

The End

Written by: KB
E-mail: starstruck_by_tj@hotmail.com