Gone For A While

Basil and I were playing on the computer with a media-music player. We found that we can look up and download all kinds of music available for our listening pleasure. We talked about how music brings meaning to life and soothes the soul. I mean, man, we had to wait on the radio to hear our favorite music in the seventies. Eight track tape decks gave us a headache when the deck "clicked" in the middle of our song to continue on to the next track. The videos of the eighties and nineties were the greatest innovation in music history. We could actually "see" and hear the music. Most of our music was not heard much anymore until now.

We sat for a while trying to remember the "cuts" we listened to as teenagers. Basil had lost some time in the music history from being overseas in Korea in the early seventies. We had not had the opportunity to meet each other early in life. I looked up music as a game to see if he could remember where he was when the song was playing. He asked me to look up a track called "Suavecito". The song was composed by George Santana. I pulled up the song by the album name, "Malo".

I found the song and pressed "play' on the screen. I looked into Basil's eyes and found that he was leaving me.

He swung and swayed to the music. His eyes, bright and sparkling, he started to sing. He had developed goose bumps on his arms and was a little cold, but yet very warm at the same time. Basil seemed to be in a state of euphoria that I have never seen before. He was not aware that he touched my arm with his hands and I was transformed into an entity that allowed me to see what he felt.

Basil was walking to class. He was dressed in a rayon shirt, Levi jeans and platform shoes. He was carrying his trumpet. He was walking the "pimp walk"
as all boys did back then, which made his huge afro bounce with every step.
His eyes were so enchanting and vibrant. I was watching the most handsome, intriguing young man I ever saw.

Then the song was over. Basil was home again.

I asked Basil if he was okay as we were catching our breath. He said, " You know Carrie, that song brought back so many memories for me." Yeah," I said, " I noticed you left me for a while." Basil shook his head and replied, " Nope, you were always with me. I took you with me when I touched your arm."