location: the quad
"I just got a bitchslap from the world," Pilar said to me when we met up with her at the Quad that night. It was a strange line, you know, coming from her. I've never seen Pilar experience any shortage of love and so, it was disquieting. But I suppose, it can rain on anyone.
She let out a cheeky little grin on our walk towards the courtyard; a little sign that with her friend and singing partner, Elena, and her old guitar sitting on her lap, she was recovering as fast as I expected her to. And this was made all the brighter by her performance of "Turtle Rock," with the yellow spotlight above, like a giant firefly buzzing around her pretty face. It was a crescendo song, I felt. A song that started so eerily heartfelt but ended faster and content. Pilar let out another happy grin after the last of the strings fell asleep with the melody.
I like to think she felt better. There were some passerbys watching her here and there. She got a jumping applause from Christine too. It's amazing how this woman is really, even on her worst days, never any shortage of love from the people around her. But even then, it's nice to see that even the happiest of people can feel the same kind of rejuvenating wonder from friends and guitars and lovely nights and the reverie of strangers as the saddest.
Hope can be a beautiful thing to hear when it's not so clumsily turned into a cliche'd message of impossible happiness. It's even better seeing people realize it for themselves.