Jeremiah's Journey - 4: "Rising From The Ashes"

Eyes dazzling with my new encounter, her eyes, yet mine reflected the same. What is the connection? She rode across the piazza on her bicycle. I offered a rose. She’s at my café table, sipping wine from a bottle of Montecarlo Red from her family’s vineyard. Tuscan bread drizzled with olive oil from the grove that her great-great-grandfather planted two centuries ago. The grapes and olives encapsulated time as I absorbed her essence of Italian heritage, a family rooted and prosperous. Where had my life gone wrong? Or was the passage to this moment meant to start a seed that would flourish in my life. I did not know. My dear friend Christina was in search of her father, and I was on a quest to find a father that was not my own. I questioned this. Pondered it over and over. Why am I searching for someone else’s father? Why not my own?

“Would you like the Tuscan tomato bread soup with steamed mussels? There are many versions of bread soup. This one, based on traditional peasant fare, is as thick as a bread pudding. The soup is delicious on its own, but we think the steamed mussels with their broth make a wonderful addition.”

“Peasant? You appear as no peasant.”

“Ha! We live simple, but we are rich. It is in the heart that we are blessed. My family has endured hard times. The grove lost to the blight, yet a root saved, the heartiest of them all. Life can seem to destroy us, but if we have faith, we will rise from the ashes.”

I sat back in my chair. I wanted a cigarette. Her words pulled a thread from my heart. I was deep in the ashes of my life. I fled, and my excuse was to find a friends father, but for what was I searching?

“I want whatever you desire.” I was already acquiescing to her lead. She had a spell on me. What do I mean by that? She mesmerized me. She looked into my eyes, and my heart melted. Gone were the chains of my past, and I was free to venture wherever she would take me.

“Then let’s add piadina with fontina and prosciutto, to start our evening. There is no rush. Lo amerai! You will love it! "Piadini is a lot like a pizza, except that the crust doesn't rise and it's typically cooked on a grill to give it a nice, smoky flavor and crunchy crust. You can top a piadina with anything you like. This sauce is very typical of northern Italy, where piadini are especially popular. We have the night to explore. Tell me more, why are you here. You said you write, but why and about what?”

Lost for words. I stumbled to express myself like walking on a path strewn with loose stones. My confidence diminished with the sun setting on the horizon. It would be dark soon, and the night would begin. Oh, how the lowering of light changes the ambiance. The heat of the day turned cool as a breeze from the surrounding mountains layered the valley.

“A toast to your new writing in Italy. Quali parole sono nel tuo cuore, in questo momento? What words are in your heart now?”

Then, like a scepter anointing a knight, I found myself.

The rose of my calling,

Who should receive?

You that broke the day into light?

Hither I tinge, at the thought of you.

Yet, you exude the prominence of a queen,

Bubbly excitement, I cannot withhold,

I write about that which is before me.”

She raised her glass of wine for a toast. The crystal touched, the wine shimmered, the night had begun, the moonlight glimmered.

"Jeremiah's Journey - 4: Rising From The Ashes"

Copyright © 2016 by Jeff Cambridge