FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE MOST HIGH

The board meeting was held at 11 am the next day as slated. By the time it ended, my father was had been out to attend other business meetings and I would later go out with Jimmy to familiarize myself with the city and, later, his grandma's where we were lavished with local delicacies.

I loved the rich taste of the roast corn 'elote', served with a lot of lime butter, chili powder, sour cream, mayonnaise, and salt. And come to think that it was sold freely on almost every street was amazing. We would go for more, more, and more until diminishing returns set in.

In addition to their food, I found out that music was very central to their culture. Moreover, it was easy to see that their favorite songs were made with lots of vibrant percussion. I enjoyed every bit of the moment I watched Jimmy's cousins dance to the samba genre with a lot of rhythm and styles.

Rodriguez, Ramos, and Isabel found my steps entertaining and would reluctantly give up trying to urge me on for a longer time on the floor. The salsa had appealed to me all my life and the same would have been of the meringue that I was made to dance to today, but for its fast and steady tempo as opposed to the calmer spins and showy vibes of salsa.

I would return to the hotel much later in the evening, with Jimmy full of enthusiasm. He had demonstrated in these few meetings that even though he was head over heels with me, he wasn't in a hurry whatsoever, which resonated with my recently tamed but deep affection for him. So, I made him stay in my room until I checked out a few weeks later.

"Oh, Jimmy, you are here already?" My father echoed when he came to check on me the next morning and found Jimmy slouching on a sofa at the end of the wall opposite the bed; an unmistakable discomfort coating his words.

"Oh no, Dad, Jimmy… I made him stay over here," I replied, pausing to renegotiate my defense of him stronger as if I knew that he would need to save his breath for what he would be asked some moment later.

"Is that so?" He asked in a mellowed but firm tone. He didn't wait for a response to that before he followed it up with another question, impatiently.

"Do remind me again, what part of Basel you are from and who your father is," he said, dragging the door slowly shut behind him and leaning on it.

"I am from Arisdorf in Canton and my father was..."

A knock at the door cut him short and also severed the flow of the conversation that was beginning to brew some tense momentum. It was a room service staff of the hotel. He took a few steps to inch closer to the room which afforded the staff some space to push open the door.

"Are you two coming with us for breakfast or...he waited for us to fill in the blank unvoiced alternative, abandoning the discourse for later with a small grin wiping off his earlier serious countenance.

"Yes Dad, I piped, answering for me and Jimmy, hopped off the bed and waltzed to the wardrobe to pick a sweat top that I cast over the nightgown that was a couple of inches shy of my knee's cap.

At the same time, Jimmy denuded a single seat by the table that had hunched his shirt since the night before and wore it over the singlet he had on a pair of jeans as we both joined my father who led the way to the restaurant on the lower floor of the hotel.

I could tell, Jimmy felt a world of relief from the tension that was beginning to build at the pit of his tummy given the way he let out a long and audible exhale which made his chest flutter visibly, up and down.

He may have been a soldier, but he was also a-twenty-five old. Moreover, that was the lofty Albert Lawrence Sheriff, whose name intimidated the bravest of men even from afar, standing face-to-face with him, demanding information that could be used to profile him as worthy of his jewel's company or otherwise.

Jimmy and I returned to the room after breakfast and he made his intention of returning to Switzerland in a few days known to me which I stuck up against immediately.

"I have finished my business here," he began coolly.

"My family said that my mother never stayed back.

I was told she throttle away as soon as she left my father. So, the search continues.”

The last sentence came out in a lower octave with his voice croaky and it made me think of my mother in a few fleeting seconds. He may have finished what brought him and had another one with the parenthetical appendage that reunited us, but there was no way I was going to let him off my side, yet.

"I saw the effect of my father's presence on you earlier today and I bet my fingers that he is the chief reason you won't stay longer with me.

But we agreed that you would stay here for a long time. Right? I still want that to happen. I will fund your account for your stay before nightfall." I could barely finish when he cried out.

"Hey, it’s not about the money. You have loved and spoilt me silly this whole time and that's enough to scare me away. I haven't run because you haven't stopped showing you want me as much as I want you. I honestly hope that doesn't change, ever.

He contoured his brow into many lines of concern, causing his eye to burn bright as he leaned rhythmically forward to tail off his word which added effect to that which he said and drove home his point, and continued.

"Moreover, I got a handsome reward for the victory at the fight. And honestly, I won't be needing saving in many years. Moreover, I will have to be recklessly wasteful to have gulped the last one you sent," he submitted with a shrug.

"That still doesn't change the fact that there are 49 Million Kangaroos in Australia and 3.5 Million people in Uruguay,” I said in obvious deliberate diversion.

He stretched out on the sofa, laughing hysterically. "That means if the Kangaroos were to invade Uruguay, each person would be condemned to fight 14 Kangaroos at a time...!" He recovered in time to build on my mischievous foundation. Oh, how much I loved it that he could play my game!

“Now you get the fact! That would leave about a million strong individuals like the super Suarez to bite 28 Kangaroos to death all by themselves every two minutes if they hope to win the war after one year," I invested more making sure the crazy moment lived on.

"You sure do know your basic mathematics," he enthused writhing and quaking.

A few times, he tried and failed to recover from the joke in the next couple of minutes. He posed a composed exterior even though he was still giggling, however, subduedly.

Duty called some fortnight later and I returned to Caritas Ville to formally resume at the number one position in the biggest firm in the continent, although my father was still lurking around the corridor until I got a good grip on the ropes of operations.

Meanwhile, in the third month after I left Mexico, I was on the phone with Jimmy when he mentioned that the information available to him suggested that he might find his mother in Caritas. I smiled at my luck for the promise of a chance to be with Jimmy again.

Many months after our last meeting, his last words still rang in my head as though it was yesterday. "...you have loved and spoilt me silly this whole time and that's enough to scare me away...I honestly hope that doesn't change, ever."

If only he knew I was the one who wished daily that the beautiful moments never end, he would make haste to take the strings of actions that should assure that.

"But if he fails to do so when next I would see him, I will take the actions in his lieu for our common good," I assured myself.