Amulet
It all started with the weekend in Paris. I'd split up with Hilary my long-time lover. We'd made lots of plans for our future, we were intending moving in together, and then she told me she didn't want to be with me anymore. No reason, just walked out, blocked me on her phone, e-mail, internet, and any other way I could contact her. She moved back to the small northern coastal town she came from before I met her with no forwarding address. I had no way to contact her and I missed her sorely.
I had moped about for a few months after that, totally destroyed by her callousness. I thought we had something special, but it seems we had nothing at all. I was left to face the future alone without her, and it hurt.
I was in the local shopping mall one Saturday afternoon a few weeks later, and noticed there was a new travel agency offering 'Special,' introductory deals, so I stopped to have a look. 'Paris - the city of lovers,' one advert proclaimed, which I thought was rather ironic, given my recent 'dumped,' status, but I'd always loved Paris so I thought what the hell, there was more to Paris than romance. Twenty minutes later I walked out of the shop with my tickets for a long weekend in Paris.
Little did I know as I boarded the plane a few weeks later, that my life was about to change irreversibly over the course of the next few days. If I had known what was to happen I sometimes wonder, would I still have gone? That would be an '
oh fuck yes
,' I believe.
I enjoyed my weekend in Paris, well, as much as anyone can enjoy something like that on your own without the companionship of someone special to accompany you. I'll admit, there were moments when I felt the pangs of loneliness and hurt when I was seeing or experiencing something that would have been nice to share with her, but I tried to move past that and enjoy it for what it was.
I hit all the art galleries and museums, saw the Eifel Tower, walked in Montmartre where the impressionists walked, the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, Napoleon's Tomb, and the rebuilding works and scaffolding around Notre Dame after the disastrous fire, drank coffee and watched the world go by at the outdoor cafés, saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, in short, all the tourist spots. I'd seen them all before on my previous trips to Paris, but these things are worth seeing more than once, that sense of history is good for the soul.
On Sunday, I made my way to the "flea market,' the biggest flea market in the world I believe. Here you can find second hand objects d'art of all kinds, in infinite variety, from as little as one Euro to thousands. The place is thronged with tourists all looking for a bargain of some sort, and often getting 'ripped off,' mercilessly instead. The market covers a huge area, street after street of stalls and shops that seem to go on and on.
I was just browsing, looking here and there aimlessly, when a young woman spoke to me in English as I passed one of the stalls. She was breathtakingly beautiful, light honey coloured skin, dark brown hair, with eyes that were such a dark brown they were almost black.
'I have jewellery sir, buy something for your lady love, a ring, a bracelet, or earrings, and she will always be true to you, I guarantee it,' she claimed. I smiled at that, which only encouraged her, and she stepped out from the table she stood behind and came to me. 'If you have a discerning eye for the more unusual items, come see what I offer you. This is not modern junk, this is genuine antique jewellery,' she claimed. 'Come, look sir, that's all I ask, see for yourself, make up your own mind. I have done my part, if you are worthy the item will choose you.'
Now that was a novel sales pitch and concept I thought, but it's true, when we see something we like, something we want and covet, do we choose it, or does it choose us? Anyway, I liked her immediately, although more than aware that she was trying to sell me something I didn't really need, and something that was going to be very expensive.
I did as she asked and looked at her wares, and what she said was true, she had what looked to be genuine antique items of jewellery. Gold, silver, some items beset with stones, or enamelled. I thought I might get myself a ring, not that I'm a great one for personal adornments, but then I saw something that caught my eye. It looked like a silver pendant comprised of two ellipses, with the larger ellipse elongated and enamelled in a deep pink colour almost red, with a smallish pearl set in the top ellipse. I laughed to myself when I saw it.
It looked for all the world like a woman's genitalia, a sacred yoni, with the pearl as the clitoris, which again amused me. In the ancient and often sacred texts about love, the clitoris was often referred to as the 'pearl,' and I knew straight away that this was exactly what this was supposed to be. If you get close enough to a woman's clitoris and are observant enough, you will see that the little pleasure bud has a pearlescent sheen to it, hence the ancient name, 'the pearl.'
'You like that Sir,' she stated, it wasn't a question. 'You wish to buy it for your wife, or lady love?' she asked. I shook my head and she caught on straight away. 'You have no wife or lady love,' she shrugged sympathetically, 'then truly this one has chosen you Sir. This was not made for a woman; it was made for a man.'
'It looks really old, where did it come from originally,' I asked her, just curious. Her dark eyes looked at me, or rather
into
me and there was something there I couldn't quite put my finger on, a strange look, and with total conviction she said, 'China,' adding 'but I buy it in Turkey on our way to Europe and now Paris. We may stay here, or move on to the UK, we don't know, but we are Roma sir, what you call gypsies, we always are moving. Buy it now sir,' she urged me, 'we may not be here for long. You will never regret it, I promise,' she said. She named a price, and I offered her just over half of her original figure.
She smiled; the bargaining was on. In the end I bought it for seventy-five euros, and she asked me if I was going to wear it now. She offered a small presentation box to put it in if I wished, but I just slipped the silver chain over my head, and it initially felt cold against my upper chest, but soon warmed up. I thanked her, and she gave me a dazzling smile.
'You have not only bought a beautiful pendant; you have bought much good fortune. It is said of this jewel that if you rub the pearl, the woman of your dreams will be yours,' and as I automatically reached to do just that she put her hand over mine. 'Do not rub the pearl in my presence sir, you are a fine young man, but I do not wish to be your lover, or your slave.' She smiled once more and thanked me as I left. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland said.
I thought nothing more about it that day, it was just an amusing incident, one of these little quirky incidents that make vacations, holidays, and foreign trips memorable in years to come.
