LVI Montevideo 3.0 - Friends

When Annie returned from the washroom, which was outside, She found Daniel was at peace, sleeping with half his leg protruding out of the bed and his hands crossed on his chest. 

He slept with a mild snore, Annie kicked Daniel on his leg and called out his name, Dan ! C’mon wake up, its not sleep time yet? - it was around 4 pm in the afternoon - Hey? And She shook him, Dan refused to acknowledge her attempts to wake him up, he mumbled some 'please’ and then turned over to a side facing away from Annie and continued to sleep, Annie wasn’t someone to give up all that easy, she just jumped over Daniel, sat cross legged on his hip and then tried turning him around to face her, all the time talking to him, saying ‘ Dan, C’mon I have so much to talk and I want to go around Montevideo and check out its life, C’mon ! 

Incidentally it was fascinating to hear Annie pronounce the name Montevideo - the first syllable 'Monte' had the 't' sounding almost like both 't & d' put together as 'Mondthe' and the 'Video' part had the 'V' pronounced as a combination of 'b& v' and the last syllable 'Deo' was more like a punjabi 'dev' with a 'yo' added , so it was pronounced Mondte bv devyo - or something close to that - with most secondary syllables pronounced soft and fast. 

Mondthebvdevyo. 

Back on the couch , Annie was still on top of Daniel, She continued her attempt to wake up Dan. 

Dan didn’t seem too inclined , he just turned around and faced away from Annie with his face down. 

Annie tried turning him around and he would go back to the same pose and this went on for a while.

It was strange that these two who knew each other from such long years, never looked at each other with a sense of a Physical attachment, in fact they themselves wondered as to how they ended up coming so very close to making up and then the whole intensity simply dissipated into a session of heavy breathing or simply into a session of looking into each others eyes and then they were back to being just friends – they would have had a thousand such incidents all through their relationship.

But anyone else who would have seen the two would have easily thought that the two were inseparable and that they were as deeply involved emotionally as they were Physically.

Probably more physical than emotional.

Often, they would have seen Annie holding Dan’s arm with a sense of familiarity that comes only with physical proximity between a man and a woman , you know like the sense of touch between two skin types that have known each other nude and naked, that have shared such an intimacy that they have become almost one with each other, you know ? that’s a different kind of touch, its done involuntarily and without even a thought or sense of reservation. One natural action. Annie, would walk beside Dan and then soon hold his hand and both wouldn't have even noticed the action. 

They would simply be laughing and talking and all that.

A bystander would think, wow – a couple their alright.

But the problem is Dan and Annie had never really made up. Sexually. Ever. 

Except for some lame groping time here and there during their really young days, when they had kissed a few times, they never really made up, as in making it up in its true sense. And once they had grown and turned adults, they simply refused the physical aspects, each will have their own partners and each unto themselves.

Until each or either ended up on the other side of a relationship.

Broken. 

Or split. 

Or simply at an end.

But they were somehow always around. Since their Mettiguda days. 

They were separated only when Annie went to Ooty. But they would meet everytime Annie came visiting during the Summer Holidays. 

But then somewhere as they grew into adults and then grew independent they were also quite blaise about each other’s nudity, neither was conscious in front of the other.

Annie could walk stark naked for an entire day with Daniel reading or cooking or some such thing. 

And so would Daniel. Neither would do it just to do it, it would just happen some day when they were together spending a whole day with only each other for company and at either one’s home and it would just happen and none of the two took the event beyond the seriousness that most other younger friends would have, otherwise.    

But the interesting thing was – they were never both nude, together. If one was nude the other was invariably covered, at least at the hip.

Being topless was something absolutely natural for both.

Sometimes Annie liked to virtually cling onto Daniel’s arms , you know literally hang from it almost pulling that side his arm down, like it was some kind of a pole or something, or sometimes whack Daniel with a virtual barrage of whacks-

Whack

Whack

Whack

Whack, whack, whack…

Whatever. They just went about it like no one existed.

Today when they were rolling on the bed, with Annie on top and Daniel refusing to wake up – it was the action of two very familiar souls, but neither looking at the potential of turning the situation into a possible session of sex.

That did not exist between them.

That wasn’t even the least possible action.

But then they were capable of wrestling for at least an hour, calling names, using cuss words, kicking, punching or simply throwing each other with such physical pressure that they even hurt each other sometimes. 

Daniel could even end up with a black eye or Annie would end up with a huge painful bump on her head or even a cut lip or a strained neck – anything was possible when they were on, mocking a fight that would often be very real and then both would end up sore and hurting.

Dan, said, with his eyes closed and face away from Annie -  

“Listen you fucking philosophical bitch allow someone to sleep when they have to, you have had your portion of rest, 1st class travel and all that, I’ve not had such luxury, that fucking ferry I took from BA to Mondthevideo churned my fucking intestines inside out and I’m fucking tired of all the intestinal tangoing around’.

"So please" . Lay off. 

Annie wasn't the least moved by the plea's. 

She said, 

"C’mon you fucking globe trotting war mongering son of a Reuters bitch, you can do better than just come over and sleep on my hostel bed, I have fucking traveled across the Atlantic just to see you, you bastard, so wake up you fucking douche bag”!!

And "whack" she would give him one mock shot on his shoulder. And that could at times hurt. 'Coz it was hit real hard. Sometimes.

Dan would say "listen you Harvard whore, go find somebody else from the streets of Montevideo, they are all there for your taking, spare me’ I’m not getting up. Not for now".

And then it happened. 

Daniel suddenly - without a warning - turned around and then simply picked up the slim frame of Annie and physically  threw her like she was some ball or something’ Annie flew out as light as a crushed paper trash and then crashed landed in a soft mock manner on to the opposite wall marginally missing the table and the reading lamp.

She stayed there for a while, breathing heavy. 

Looking horrified at Daniel and then crawled back and virtually grabbed him by her nails, screaming all the while ‘ how dare you fucking do that’ !! 

By then the shouts and screams between the two had already caught the attention of the other hostelites, many were trying peep from curtain gaps of a window facing the corridor and through the key hole.

Soon someone from the hostel management rang the bell. 

Annie gave one last whack and then got up and opened the door and then without waiting to talk or clarify simply came back and crashed beside Daniel.

Now they were both sprawled side by side on the bed, Danny looked like he had just survived a guerrilla attack, he had small scratches on his face, mild traces of blood too, his long hair looked like it had been through a storm. 

Annie looked fresh, she had tied her hair and she was wearing denim shorts and a cotton Boston Globe T.

Both looked at the crowd that walked in. Both did not attempt to say anything, they simply stared at the people. The people who walked in too did not know what to do, they were confused at the reaction of the two, they were expecting one of them to ask for help or some such thing. When they found no such reaction. They waited for a while, kept looking at the two.

And then simply closed the door and walked out. Shaking heads.

Dan and Annie stayed in the same position for a while until Dan got up and said –

Ok. Let’s go.

 And yanked Annie out of bed.

Soon they both stepped out. Backpack, guitar and all that. Annie had her hand clinging to that of Dan’s as they checked out. The people at the hostel continued to keep a narrow eye on the two.

But Annie and Daniel, did not even notice. They just stepped out. The Montevideo night breeze was cool and pleasant.

It was just about 7 in the evening and no South American city rocked before midnight. 

In fact it had to be a few hours past midnight for Montevideo to really rock. 

The South Americans, esp. those outside Rio or Sao Paulo partied from 1AM to 6 AM and then slept until Lunch and then they worked until they dropped dead. And then they rested for a while before getting ready to party again once it was past midnight.

Welcome to South America. They were so naturally nocturnal. Everyone partied well into dawn. 

Dan scored some pot through some known sources on the way, they bought a local newspaper, hired a car, a Chevy Optra MUV 2011, it was a classic crossover between a hatchback and an SUV , it had large baggage and leg space and an excellent music system, it was one of Chevy’s very special designs for the South Americas.

Once the car was in hand, both headed straight to the Montevideo ocean front. After driving a while they reached a spot they liked, on a road called the Rambla Mahatma Gandhi, a road named after Gandhi, while neither really suffered from any patriotic pangs, they did feel good to know there was one Indian who had such a world wide impact.

The Rambla was clean, spacious and had a long winding ocean front.  

They parked the car facing the ocean, Dan rolled two separate pot smokes and then lit the two himself before handing over one to Annie.

And then they got talking.