Love in pieces

18/04/2022 Nilson Lattari

The couple walked down the pavement illuminated by the light from the store windows. The elegant street was an invitation for a relaxing walk and an opportunity for people to admire clothes and objects, pointing their fingers at them as if they were looking for subjects for a conversation to spend time.
There wasn’t car traffic in the street, only people walking, while I had a funny conversation with my friends on my mobile.
When I lifted my head away from the illuminated screen, the first thing that I saw was a pretty couple walking. They walked hand in hand and touched their bodies lightly as if they felt their temperature higher, their suavity, involved in a chemistry coming from two souls who get attracted.
Ok, the reason for my attraction was not a couple walking, but two young women embraced and sometimes kissed without exaggeration.
I smiled. I smiled like an observer who wasn’t used to seeing them, homosexual people showing their love in the streets, revealing their feelings. Feelings that were hidden in rooms and private places and now they are flowing freely.
One of them wore a beautiful flowery dress, her hair with a hair clip, a necklace and high heels. The other wore sober clothes, short hair, and she hasn’t got any accessories.
Their faces were illuminated by their youth, and their eyes sparkled, demonstrating their happiness.
Like a sky dropping down like rain and bolts, a group of guys wearing black clothes as their feelings arrived in the street. Their bodies had sinister tattoos etched, and they started beating the one who would be the boyfriend – I assumed it was an act of revenge against a woman who wasn’t obeying their rules and thoughts.
They avoided the other who tried to help her beloved friend. Her screams mixed with the guy’s hard words, and her protest wasn’t enough to alert people around them. They and I watched that situation as a horror show on an opened stage in the city.
It seemed that I wasn’t there. I was paralyzed and astonished while I heard sounds from my mobile. People were trying to speak frivolities while I saw a barbarism in front of my eyes.
Full of madness, the group went away, leaving on the ground, involved in blood and deformation, the one who was walking with confidence through the street.
The girlfriend was crying and knelt down beside the one and put her hands on her chest, looking at her lover, who was a mixture of blood, torn clothes and tears, wondering why those things happened.
It was violence on the pavement, a love made in pieces fighting against prejudices.
We must condemn all the ways of hate, but not the ways of love.