In spite of last night’s symptoms, my cold seems to be somewhat improved by this morning. I walk to the university and arrive at the statue just before 10 but Javier doesn’t appear. I check around but can find no other statues anywhere near the entrance. I am sure he wanted to meet me again. Perhaps Francisco was unexpectedly around or something else. Men who live in fear can always find reasons for not keeping their commitments, for their lives are fraught with perceived dangers.
I take the rest of the morning to visit a hardware store, a bike shop and do some repairs on my rear derailler pulley, which has still been causing occasional problems, and replace some screws on my front rack that Nick had tightened once before. The rough roads we have been on have rattled some of them apart again.
Around mid-afternoon Mike and I head up to the Alhambra together. The Alhambra and it’s surrounding gardens, the Generalife, are the prime reasons Granada is rated so highly as place to visit. The Alhambra began as a Moorish fortress built high above the city to keep it in submission, but as the centuries of occupation passed, it evolved into more of an ornate palace with breathtakingly beautiful marble screens and architectural details that keep eyes turned towards the palace instead of the beautiful vistas over the city and Sierra Nevada. What a thrill it would have been to live here!
<Walking up the long ramp-like avenue that leads to the Alhambra, somewhat behind Mike, I meet Alfredo, a Mexican. He asks if I am alone, perhaps hopefully, and when I make a vague reference to Mike as though he really count, he asks if he can join me. He’s a handsome man, my height or slightly taller, and a bit younger than me. He was an urban planner in Mexico and is now studying architecture in Northern Ireland. He learned his English there. From time to time, his thick Mexican accent breaks into an Irish brogue, which totally delights me.
He stays with me as we tour the palace. As we pass a small sculptured marble pool. I joke that it would make a great whirlpool bath. Alfredo pick up on my comment, adding that it would be great for orgies. I say that that would be great as I haven’t had sex in weeks. “What about the guy you are with?” he asks, surprising me with his boldness. I laughed, “Not in a million years. He’s got his own boyfriend and we’re just trying to hold it together as friends!” I ask about his situation. He has a younger lover in Belfast named Richard, four years younger than himself.
I fell the same lonesome ache for companionship that I felt with Javier last night, I wonder why I only seem to make contact with men in committed relationships, committed to fooling around it seems. Alfredo is more handsome, manly and his smile oozes sexual charm. I cling to the time we spend together, wishing to make it last as long as possible, and perhaps in the process to resolve some need. At one point, we come across a cordoned-off doorway that has a sheet draped over it. I peek inside.
It’s a passageway leading to the foot of a staircase. It is littered with a few boards, pails and other construction debris. It is obviously not in regular use. I want to summon the courage to grab Alfredo’s hand and drag him inside to make love. I know he would comply if I suggest it, but the fear that someone else will see or hear us holds me back. It’s hard to tell the difference between common sense and cowardliness, and I don’t trust my need or my head cold.Mike tours the grounds on his own and leaves without us. After we are finished, Alfredo and I return to the city and snack on churrios con chocolate. We meet Mike back in the room, and the three of us go for dinner. Throughout the meal I am kicking myself for not having dragged Alfredo into the condoned-off hallway, and I try fruitlessly to think of ways to get ditch Mike and get him alone in our room. In the end, all I get is his address in Belfast where he and Richard live.
PHOTO 1: statue of Spanish conqueror
PHOTO 2: street market
PHOTO 3: view of Granada from Generalife
PHOTO 4: view of Generalife from Alhambra
PHOTO 5: Court of the Lions, Alhambra
PHOTO 6: main inner court of Alhambra
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