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AUGUST 2012 -
SEXY X2
MAGAZINE -
43
more basic, more elemental. It has
to do with seeing the light – or
even the semi-darkness – that filters
through the window between the
curtains, and by knowing the time
of the year we were, I can cal-
culate almost with chronometrical
accuracy the time when I wake up.
Arleen has a real passion for the
decorative arrangements of our
house.
Curtains, moquettes, carpets, cords
and a host of objects, I find hard to
enumerate, are part of her strategic
arsenal which make our home have
that special something that differen-
tiates a simple house from a home.
She should have been an interior
designer, or an exterior one; or
even better, an inside-outside, up-
and-down house designer.
Actually, nothing escapes her good
taste.
I eventually became the best per-
former of her design concerts.
She was not endowed with a huge
body, or strong arms. On the con-
trary, she is all delicacy and grace.
In all our projects, I put my physical
strength and Arleen her ideas. I
love carrying out all those eventual
repairs that our house might need
and, obviously, all those things that
my wife is redecorating from time
to time.
About five years ago (or was it last
summer? I am a little confused),
she decided that our living-room
needed more light. Surely, I had
thought that in many occasions,
but for one reason or another I had
always postponed it for later.
One day, I arrived home from
work and she adopted that serious
position that she usually has when
a decoration project is in question.
Unfailingly, she attacked with her
well-known “I have been thinking
that… “. She told me:
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I’ve been thinking that…
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What?
-
Have you noticed that our
living-room tends to be dark?
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Dark?
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Well… Dark… I don’t
know, as if its window were too
small perhaps.
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Are you suggesting that win-
dows should be enlarged? I mean.
. . Should they be widened?
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Well, not really
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Oh! Thank goodness
-
Not wider. I’ve been think-
ing wider and also higher. Actually,
I strongly believe that French win-
dows would be wonderful there.
From that moment on, I started
an intensive course of practical
carpentry-- a challenge that I actu-
ally found very exciting. My little
improvised workshop, which for
quite some time had been filling up
with more and more tools, bigger
and more specialized each time,
became my base operation. I drew
rudimentary drawings on a board,
cut wood, and then I put myself to
work. Arleen helped me by hand-
ing me some tools, giving me some
drinks to quench my thirst, and
giving me her opinions on every
single aspect of my work.
I must confess that the French win-
dow was an excellent idea. It not
only gave more light to this space,
but it also opened the room toward
the backyard and gave a new
dimension to our house.
Without thinking of it, it turned up
to be very useful later, when our
daughter Christina was born. If
Arleen is beautiful, Christina is the
perfection in a little girl.
I met Arleen when we both were
in high school, and our romance
began in the perfect manner in
which any teen relationship should
start in order to last in time: we did
not stand each another.
Since I was a child, I had been tall
and when I met Arleen, I was six
feet tall as I am now. Arleen has
never been over her five feet. I was
for her a clumsy giant and she was
a conceited Lilliputian for me.
Eventually, I developed a theory.
In fact, hulking guys seem to be
a bit silly because they have a
height slightly greater than aver-
age which forces them to look at
the world downwards, and walk
with their heads down by bending
their backs and giving them that
aspect of good-natured people that
sometimes makes them look a little
stupid. On the contrary, those who
are smaller than the average look
at the world upwards, and the fact
that they have to raise their heads