Act 1, Scene 6

FEDE

“Yeah, yeah. I know it’s gonna suck, put please do it for me, Fede. There’ll be a day where you won’t get the chance to see them again.”

And that’s how she convinced me to have her meet my parents. Four years had passed since the last time I had set foot in the Distrito Federal. It was the winter of 89’.

We landed and they were waiting for us at the airport, looking exactly like when I had last seen them.

I exchanged handshakes with them before they noticed Meli.

“Oh, you’re Imelda? You’re lovely, just so lovely.”

Swiftly, and to my great confusion, my parents fell in love with Meli. 

On the final walk towards the old apartment I heard how my dad eagerly regaled her with tales of his previous life in Chile, some brand new to me.

Mom got close to me and asked in a sharp whisper:

“What comes before you are part of Komsomol?”

I responded with Pavlovian quickness:

“The Organization of Pioneers Vladimir Lenin.”

“And before that, boy?”

“The Little Octobrists.”

Mom nodded, happy that I passed the test and proved myself to still be her son, in any way I could still be.

The apartment, also frozen in time, we chit-chatted about nothing in particular. When the night came they asked to speak with me in private, not with words, but in our nonverbal language. They gave me, unprompted as always, their opinion of Meli. An intelligent and charismatic girl with a forceful will that was blunted by affluence and ignorance of her own ambition. She also had a good heart, they added, to soften the criticism. 

I had found her just in time, I could make a stable life with her while we recuperated.

To answer my confusion over what we would need to recuperate from they turned on the TV and sifted through the public-access channels.

We got to the News.

That day was November 10, 1989. The day before that, as we flew towards the Distrito Federal, the Berlin Wall fell and, like the next domino, the USSR would fall, followed by the Cold War.

They reassured me that this was just a speedbump in our plans, that the Fight was never over.

I laughed myself close to tears, I finally got the punchline that was right there all along.

By punchline I mean my parents dream, my purpose, of course.

            END OF SCENE