It was raining the last time I went to Tahiti.
It began as a misty rain that brought out the scent of the plumaria, so that the night air was thick and sweet, it felt like you could get drunk breathing it. Even when the rain was much heavier it was warm rain, and while it drenched your hair and clung to your clothes, you weren’t cold. It was the kind of rain you wanted to spin around and dance in.
The last time I went to Tahiti there was a black pearl in my pocket, and I walked hand in hand down the broken pavement of the street with someone who had come to mean the world to me in a very short period of time. Love can swamp you in unexpected ways, it comes upon you like a Tahitian rainstorm, swift and sudden and all encompassing, and you want to dance in it. You want to trumpet it from the rooftops at the same time that you want to hide it and protect and keep it close to your heart so that the world doesn’t steal it away from you.
There was an outdoor restaurant, and a pizza that had egg on it for reasons that remained forever a mystery. There was dancing and laughter and looks exchanged that meant much more than anyone looking at us realized, there was a drink with two straws – because we couldn’t afford to buy two. There was a fragile, frightened beauty that shimmered in the rain like a heat-haze, like a mirage that you’re afraid to touch because you’re sure that something this beautiful, this perfect, cannot possibly belong to anyone in this world let alone you.
The rain ended, and the sunlight revealed that some things – no matter how beautiful – are not meant to last beyond the snapshot that becomes imprinted on your memory.
Life has moved on since the last time I went to Tahiti, the clock has turned and the gears have shifted, and I look back at a year ago and I smile with the warm memory of someone who has been lucky enough to experience a moment of breathtaking loveliness in this all too often cold world.
I regret nothing in my life, things work out as they are meant to, and they bring the joy they are supposed to.
But tomorrow, when we dock in Papeete, I will walk through the rain…
And I will remember…the last time I was in Tahiti
Where is a quill pen when you need one. I can’t abide happy people and do not let anyone try to convince me that I have chosen poorly for one millisecond