Life took a turn for the worse and I spent the past week moping and coping. You may remember Denis, Current Something #1, from previous posts. Quite a bewitching lad, no? Sadly, beauty truly is only skin deep.
We had a quiet evening at home in my apartment on Friday night, talking about our lives over a meal of delivered chicken lasagna. Denis talked about growing up poor in Chaco in northern Argentina, moving to the capital at the beginning of this year, and struggling to find his way around the city and make a decent living here. In hindsight, that's when I should have realized something was amiss. We originally met online in June of 2006, and at that time he told me he was living in BA. The discrepancy passed right over my head at that moment.
When we got up in the morning, we decided to go sightseeing in Recoleta. I made us coffee and then jumped in the shower. When I got out, Denis was nowhere to be seen. I thought of several possibilities. Perhaps he'd received a cell call and the reception was bad so he went out to the street. Maybe he'd gone to the maxikiosko (ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall shops that sell cigarettes, candy, sodas, etc.). I got dressed and still no Denis. I sent him a text message and asked where he was. His reply to me said he was very sorry and he hoped I would forgive him. By now, I was bewildered.
That's when I noticed that Denis' mochila (knapsack) was gone. So was my nearly new videocamera, which had been set out to take along on our sightseeing. Denis wasn't coming back and neither was my camcorder. Bothered is an understatement, I was way beyond that.
This is someone I'd talked to online for a year. We'd met in person the day after I arrived in Argentina. I thought I'd been careful, meeting at cafés and other public places, waiting until I felt I knew his character well enough to invite him into my home. He was always polite, goodnatured, sincere, and affectionate. Eventually, he came to my apartment, even spent the night quite a few times, and there was never a hint of trouble. Was this a spontaneous crime of opportunity or was it a long-planned scheme to build up my trust until the moment was right? I will probably never know.
Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. But ultimately, betrayed.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
when i have "friends" over i always leave three 100 peso notes somewhere like on my dresser visible it works like a test how long they stay there but while they have disappeared, some more important things to me havent so the decoy works as a discovery tool and as a temptation/trigger before a bigger burn
Sounds like a good strategy. How often do the "friends" succumb to temptation? Do they overtly take all 3 notes or are they a bit surreptitious and just abscond with one or two, hoping you won't notice?
Post a Comment