Love at First Sight on a Cuban Street

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES — There are only two things in the world I like more than plants. One is telling stories. The other are kids, particularly children under five.

For me, it is delightful to spend time with a little kid, to see their smiles, to pamper them.

It is often not enough for me to wave at kids from a distance. On occasion, I offer them some of the sweets I carry around for my own girls so as to get as close to them and get a glimpse at those perfect beings that will soon not be so perfect.

Nothing makes a mother or father happier than knowing their kid is treated well and loved by others. Of course, there are always exceptions, like the one I came upon a few days ago.

I believe that was love at first sight. I fell in love with Luisito the moment I saw him. I had the urge to eat him up, hold him, bite him and I don’t know what else. His sweet smell was a fatal attraction.

My enthusiasm was such that I was unable to conceal it and, apparently, the mother was put off by it. She gave me a nasty look from the moment I got in the horse drawn wagon and held the hand of that two-year-old baby, more beautiful than anything in this world.

We began looking at each other intensely. It seemed as though we had known each other for years. He would smile at me and I would smile back. He threw a kiss at me, and I did the same. He spoke gibberish to me and I said “you’re beautiful. I don’t know if he understood what I said very well, but I think he did, because he stretched out his arms towards me. He could not keep his eyes off me, and I didn’t know what to do.

The mother, jealous over that affectionate exchange, turned him around so that he wouldn’t be able to see me anymore. It seems, however, that he is as hard-headed as I am and doesn’t like people telling him what to do, so he turned around and continued to stare at me and treat me to the most sincere caresses in the world.

I still remember his smell, his stare, his beautiful smile. We will likely never cross paths again. We may run into one another when he is already a teenager or a young man, and we will probably not be so drawn to one another – if we even recognize each other, that is.