Eccentricity in Venice II
by jenmercury
2009.06.18
It was our last night in Venice; Janette and I were desperate to check something online. Fortunately the person we were sharing the room with, a French student, had a laptop with him, so we offered to pay for an hour of the internet to share and he would lend us his computer. We ran downstairs to get the Wi-Fi login, and there was that man again.
“I’m busy. Come back in an hour.” he said, his eyes without leaving his screen. Our new roommate apparently hadn’t really met the hotel management and attempted to reason, only to get the same reply. So we went back to our room and waited; 45 minutes later we went down again, thinking whatever he’s doing, surely he could spare some time to write the combination for us.
“It’s not an hour yet.” he said with a temper.
Tired of walking up and down the flight of stairs again, we decided to wait at the sofa next to the reception. But then we realized we didn’t bring a pen with us (for what I’ve already forgotten; Tannessa’s phone number?), and we were hesitant of disturbing the man again. Without giving much thought I offered to go back to our room again to get one. But when I went down again, it seems the man had already lent them a pen. Anyway I waited for our roommate and Janette to finish before having my go, so I could have some quality time alone.
After the WiFi connection was cut, I got up to return the pen and hit bed. The man was watching a film on YouTube and I stood there watching the loud men in green running around with guns for awhile until he turned to me.
“Thank you for the pen.” I said, handing it back to him “What’s the name of the movie? I might watch it when I’m home.”
“It would bore you young people; only old guys like me enjoy watching World War II movies.” Me ‘Young people’, yes!!
“I like watching different things once in a while,” I said with a shrug. “and you’re not old, just mature.”
He smiled as he said he was a war film buff and thought the movie was just mediocre, so he wrote me a few movie titles I could look up.
“You are a beautiful person” he suddenly said as I was thanking him for the list. Oh… okay. Seeing my skeptical expression he kindly assured me he was telling the truth; that he had met a lot of people during his time. In a fatherly fashion, he asked if I was seeing anyone and I shook my head. “One day someone will see what I see” he said gently. I replied with a wry smile.
“It’s been a pleasure knowing you.” he said and asked me to keep the pen. We shook hands and I went up my room, mystified and pained at the same time.
