When a pirate promises to deliver the goods by a certain date, one tends to take it with a gallon of saltwater… which is exactly what I did with Sinbad’s promise to drop some sketches off the week following our meeting.  Still, I did hope he would keep his word, so I did my best to keep the weekend open without getting too emotionally invested in the outcome.

 

It probably won’t surprise you to know that the weekend came and went without a word from Sinbad.  It didn’t surprise me.  Meanwhile, I got busy with other things, and didn’t have time to think about it too much.  But after nearly three weeks had gone by, I decided to stir the pot a bit, and sent him an SMS:

 

“Ahoj Sinbad,  How are those sketches coming along?  Kruuyai”

 

The answer came back fairly quickly:

 

“Ahoj Kruuyai,  I’m very sorry, but drawings are not ready.  These days, I were constantly in need.  I’m working on it right now though.  Dealing with my muse.  :)”

 

I wrote back:

 

“No hurry.  I was just wondering.  I know those muses can’t be hurried.”

 

His answer:

 

“:D”

 

Another week went by.  Still no sign of Sinbad.  I thought I’d tease him a bit more.

 

“How is that muse treating you?  Tell her to be gentle.  :)”

 

Again, his response came quickly:

 

“Like I told you before, when the muse won’t come, it must be helped up.  I will bring you some drawings this weekend.  Some special wish?”

 

I couldn’t pass that one up:

 

“Some special wish?  Ah, dear Sinbad, I have many special wishes, but I’ll let you surprise me.  I’m sure that your ideas will be better than anything I could imagine. :)”

 

I think he liked that:

 

“:D”

 

But, once again the weekend passed, and I heard nothing from Sinbad.  Finally, it was starting to get me down.  A bunch of other things in my life were getting me down, too, so all in all, I was feeling pretty miserable and depressed.   I felt like I was just going through the motions of living day to day, and indeed, I was.   I got on the tram to go to work as usual on Monday morning, and then waited to transfer onto the bus as usual. After the bus had gone a few blocks, I noticed that we were going through a neighborhood that I recognized, but I had never noticed that we passed through it on this particular commute.  I turned from the window and got lost in my thoughts again.

 

Later, I noticed an O2 Telecom tower just like one I knew on the other side of town. 

 

“Hmmm,” I thought.  “I didn’t know there was an O2 tower here, too.  Then I took a closer look.  Holy crap!  I was on the wrong side of town!  Now, there was no way I was going to be on time for work.  I wasn’t even near a place where I could get off and switch to a different line and get back to where I was going.  I was going to be very, very late.

 

I dug my phone out of my purse to call each of the students individually and let them know what had happened.  I noticed that I had an SMS in my mailbox, so I opened it.  It was from Sinbad:

 

“Begging my deepest pardon, but I still don’t have anything to show you.  For apology, I invite you to lunch in restaurant.  Wednesday would be the best for me.  Just tell me time and meeting place.”

 

I can tell you that my mood did a 180 in as much time as it took to read that message.  Suddenly, life was looking good again.  I quickly texted him back, expressing my surprise that he was up so early (he usually doesn’t get up before 11) and giving him my free hours for Wednesday.  Of course, I had to take care of that before I could be bothered to text my students and let them know I’d be late.. haha. 

 

The next order of business was to text a couple of Czech women friends and inquire about dating protocol in the Czech Republic.  This is always uncomfortable for me anywhere.  I have never been the kind of woman who can just sit there when the bill comes and not even offer to pay my share.  And most of the guys I’ve gone out with have been only too happy to let me do that.  But every once in a while, guys get offended by that (less and less), and I really wanted to avoid any unnecessary discomfort on this “date,” if that’s what it was.  The advice I got was that I could offer to pay, but he would probably want to pay and I shouldn’t argue about it.  I could offer to buy him a drink next time, or something like that.  Okay, so that was one thing out of the way.

 

It wasn’t until Tuesday that I got his response telling me that 2:30 would be good for him.  He had misunderstood my text.  That was the time I had to start teaching (meaning I’d have to leave around 1:45).  So, I texted him back to clear it up, and he told me,

 

“Basically, I’m free all day, so it’s on you.  Just before 15:00 please, because I have training then.”

 

I didn’t know what training he was talking about, and my curiosity was piqued.  Undoubtedly, that would give us something to talk about.  I wanted to be able to spend as much time with him as possible, so I suggested that we start early… like 11:00, and meet at my place so we could look for a restaurant near there.  I got no answer, but I figured I’d hear back from him before the night was through.

 

Meanwhile, I planned my wardrobe.  Last time, I had gone for the hippy look… something to fit in with his own lifestyle.   This time, I was remembering a comment by gingersoul where she had told me that she’d been courted by businessmen while wearing her flowing, flowered skirts, and by cowboys (or something like that) while dressed in high fashion business suits (or something like that).  So, I decided to vary my style a little bit.  I had no idea what kind of women turned Sinbad on.  I’d only met his girlfriend once, and she was dressed kind of Goth-like.  I couldn’t see myself going there, but I could try the opposites attract theory on for size.

 

So, I wore the thick, lush, bright red velvet riding blazer that I’d gotten at the second hand shop.  It looks great on me, because it fits like a T and brings color to my otherwise pale complexion.  Under the blazer, I wore only a black lace camisole.  I finished off the outfit with a pair of black jeans and a sharp pair of black suede boots.  I balanced the crispness of the clothes with the softness of wearing my hair down and added just a hint of cranberry lipstick and blush (really just lipstick smeared on my cheeks with a bit of spit… hahaha).

 

I got home from my morning class with an hour to spare, so I sat down at my computer to do some work, but I couldn’t concentrate very well… I was dizzy with anticipation.  And yet, I still hadn’t received a confirmation from him, so I was beginning to get that familiar nagging feeling that I’ve been plagued with all my life.  I decided not to get upset if he came late, though.  He didn’t seem like the punctual type, and I’d be very happy if he showed up at all.

 

Still, when 11:00 came and went, and 12:00 came and went… I began to curse my rotten luck with men, and ask myself why he would invite me out just to stand me up… but it wouldn’t be the first time someone had ever done that to me.  I just couldn’t understand such unnecessary cruelty.  But there was no way I was going to call him to see if he was coming or not.  I refused to grovel.  It just wasn’t worth it.  I didn’t need to be chasing a back walking away at this stage of my life.

 

It was nearly 12:30 before my phone rang, and I saw that it was Sinbad.  With forced cheeriness, I answered:

 

“Ahoj….”

 

“Ahoj, Kruuyai-uu.  I’m so sorry, I just wake up.  I can be there in 15 minutes.”

 

He sounded so nervous and contrite, and still half asleep, that I couldn’t help but giggle.  He giggled back with apparent relief.

 

“Is that enough time?” I asked.  It hardly seemed like it would be worth it.

 

“I think so.  It will be a quick lunch, but we can eat something.”

 

So, I agreed, and was just grateful that I had arranged to wait for him at home instead of at some restaurant or tram stop.  He did manage to get there fairly quickly, and I met him at the door.  And he did look like he’d just rolled out of bed… his hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, but the large, black ringlets still framed his face, and he still looked beautiful.  In spite of his hastily-put-together appearance, his eyes were glowing, and he was smiling.

 

We set out to look for a pub right away, and to start the conversation, I asked him what kind of training he was doing.  It turned out that he was taking fencing lessons.  He hopes to get good enough to travel around with a friend this summer putting on fencing shows in the streets in hopes that people will throw money at them.  A very fitting  summer job for a pirate, wouldn’t you say?

 

As we walked along, a large group of teenagers pushed past us on the sidewalk, bumping into him.  He said something to them in Czech… suddenly the adult among youth.  It charmed me, because I had always thought of him as so young, and now I was seeing him in a different light.  And it was the first time I’d ever seen him annoyed, and I liked that side of him, too (I can’t explain it).  He said that it really bothered him when groups of people walked like that on the sidewalk and didn’t make way for other people… running them off the road, so to speak.  Of course, I agreed with him.  It’s one of my pet peeves in this country (and many other European countries).

 

We quickly found a pub and sat at a table by the window.  He tried to help me pick out a vegetarian meal, and suggested a certain type of salad, but I was starving, so I knew that wasn’t going to hold me over.  At first, I thought he might be trying to keep his costs down, and wanted to be sensitive to that, but I hadn’t been eating enough either in quantity or quality, and I was starting to feel my resistance going down.  I decided that I would order something substantial and just be prepared to pay for it myself.  But then, he ordered a not cheap meat dish for himself, so I guessed that he just had no idea how hungry I was.  People often assume that vegetarians only eat salad, especially in countries like this where few natives are vegetarian.  So, I ordered an omelette (yes, I eat eggs… but no flesh of any kind). 

 

He asked me how long I had been a vegetarian, and I told him since November.  He asked,

 

“Don’t you get… hungry?”

 

“Yes!” I admitted.  “I really, really do!  But then, I just remember the reason why I made this decision, and it’s easy to stick with it.  See, the closer I get to animals, the less I want to eat them.”

 

He told me that he had thought about that, too, but he didn’t get enough energy from any other kind of food.  It was nice that he at least understood where I was coming from.  And now that I’ve included this bit of conversation in this post, I feel completely justified in tagging it with the dating and vegetarian tags!  Still no New York, though.

 

While we waited for our food, the sun was blazing in through the window next to me, and besides making me hot and uncomfortable and squinty, it was making me very aware that I probably didn’t look very good under the harsh light conditions.  Crow’s feet are so much easier to spot when you’re squinting in the sun.  So, I moved over one seat, and Sinbad offered to trade sides with me.  Such a gentleman!   I gladly accepted.  Now, I could relax in the shade and enjoy the view. 

 

He apologized again for not having the sketches ready for me, and explained what he’d been up to.  It seems that he had mentioned to Pegleg that he would like to get involved in gaming with tin soldiers (at first he said toy warriors, and with his Czech accent, it took me forever to figure out what the heck he was talking about). 

 

But apparently, there’s this league of people who fight wars with tin soldiers, and every shot is carefully planned, and you  really have to aim the guns, etc.  The army takes up a lot of room.  So, he had mentioned this to Pegleg, and Pegleg went out and bought a set of soldiers for 2000 crowns.  And now it was Sinbad’s turn to buy an army… so he had to figure out a way to get the money, but he was going to get a cheaper or used set for 1100. 

 

So, that was why he was too busy to draw those sketches!  He was playing around with tin soldiers!  I thought, “Man, this guy is really not serious about doing this work.”  Not that I minded so much.  My whole purpose in giving him the work was to get to spend time with him.  I teased him about it anyway.

 

Then, he started asking me to give him more ideas about what I wanted for the kitchen.  I told him about an idea that Fanny Farmer had mentioned about some cats playing.  He seemed intrigued, and said,

 

“Maybe I could also put some mice in the shapes of foods… like one in the shape of a cheese, and another one in the shape of a rohlik (a long roll, like a bialy), and another one shaped like spaghetti.”

 

“A mouse shaped like spaghetti?  Really?  You can do that?”

 

“Yeah, why not?”

 

“I like it!”

 

Our discussion of the art project was fairly brief, and I hoped that it wasn’t the real reason for our getting together.  It seemed he could have easily asked  those questions over the phone.  I tried not to linger on the subject.

 

I got to talking about the film work that I’d been doing, and told him about a role I had coming up where I had to learn how to smoke.

 

“I can teach you,” he offered.

 

“Yeah?”  Bingo!  My next excuse for getting together with him!

 

As the conversation went on, he checked the time, and said he had to meet his girlfriend at three, because she wanted to talk to him about something.  And then he had his fencing lesson at four.

 

“Crap!” I thought, “He’s already gotten back together with Molly Bly.  Drat the luck!”

 

He must have read something in my look, because he added,

 

“I don’t know how you say in English…my ex-girlfriend?”

 

I nodded, relieved. 

 

Soon, it was time to go.  In fact, it was a bit past time to go, but I was having a hard time pulling myself away.  Somehow, my student waiting for me in the suburbs didn’t seem so important to me at that moment… even if her father was a famous Czech actor.  I could have stayed talking with Sinbad all afternoon.  But, we were good, and got up to pay.  The moment of truth had arrived.

 

Sinbad walked up to the cash register and paid the entire bill.  I tried to hand him a bill for my half, but he just waved me off like a gnat, and I contritely put my money away saying that I would get it the next time.  He smiled brightly and nodded.  As he was collecting his change from the hostess, I noticed that he gave her the same type of bright-eyed, well-connected smile that I had come to cherish from him.  Hmmm, so maybe those smiles don’t mean anything special after all… that’s just how he is with everyone.  So, I still didn’t quite know what to make of him.

 

We found out that we were going to the same metro station, so we got on the tram together.  He had some time to kill before meeting his ex anyway.  We got to the metro station, and I was taking the red line, and he was taking the green, but he came down to the red line platform with me to wait for my train.  Sweet, no?

 

My train came all too soon… almost immediately, and I had begun to get nervous about being late for my class.  My earlier bravado had started to wear off.  I wasn’t sure exactly how late I was running, but I thought it must be a lot. 

 

So, I thanked him for lunch and quickly reached out to scratch his surprisingly firm belly, the same way that you would scratch a puppy’s belly, and he squeezed my other hand in his.  Still, so warm and reassuring. 

 

I got on the train, happy as a cat… and wasn’t even late for my class!

 

Well, folks… there’s still another chapter to write in this little adventure.  The best is yet to come.  And to show my dedication to all my dear soulcast fans… I have made a pledge to myself.   I owe Sinbad an email… and I’m not going to send it to him until after I’ve finished posting Part 3 of this story.  And I really want to answer that email, so it’s coming soon!  I promise!