The J.-magic: A different kind of “tail”!

I was in the dark for too long and at some point, I thought I was already beyond saving. I used to be such a romantic but then life just lost meaning. Yet, today I’m not writing about that. I’m writing about this girl, J.

We were in the same class during high school, so many years ago, that it feels like an eternity. She was a close and a dear friend. In the graduation year, our school took us outside the country, for a trip near the sea. In front of our hotel, there was a guy who sold things like lighters, cigars and so on. Among the things he had, I really liked a keyholder, attached to something that appeared to be a squirrel tail. Touching it gave rise to a weird scratchy feeling. I bought it and gave it to J. She was so happy to receive it.

It was something like this

I don’t know why, so many years later, while I even moved to the other side of the world and me and J. don’t even share the night sky (we have a difference of 8 hours) the thought of that squirrel tail came back. Not only that, but it was so persistent. I didn’t want to pay attention to it, tried to kill it, but it would come back at the strangest times.

I have met J. only once in the last 6-7 years, but I always considered her to be a special person. No matter how tough the times were, she would always persevere, in style…with a laugh. She is the type of person who lights up the room as soon as she enters. You want her to hang around all the time because she transmits her positive energy. When you’re too young, you don’t really recognize how much she affects your existence, how bright she makes your days. When you enter adulthood, and everything loses meaning and you don’t have anyone that really understands you… you recognize the magic that girl possesses… the J. magic.

The J.-magic is like fire… she lights your mood up. You can never have her completely, cause she’s a free spirit, yet she has you completely under her spell. She knows her magic, she has a strong sense of identity, she knows who she is, and she makes you want to discover who you really are. She knows how to be a friend, she knows how to love, how to shake your world. She makes you forget the word with a kiss. And isn’t a great human being, one that makes you forget?

The squirrel tail made me remember her, yet, for some reason I kept pushing that thought. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere… she writes.

“Hey, remember that time we went to the sea and you bought me the squirrel tale? I had it for one year and then somehow lost it!”

I was shocked. How did she know? I was thinking about that every day of the week. I woke up to that thought and went to sleep with it, from Monday to Friday. How the hell did she know?

Well, that is the J.-magic for you. She knows! She feels!

Tonight, I heard a calling. From the sea. Jumped on my bike and after half an hour I came here.   Almost midnight. Facing the mesmerizing sea, under the stars, with my hands shaking from the cold, I write this story.

Completely lost on writing, a young Japanese couple brings me back, offering a Snickers. Remembering that I have a pack of cigarettes, I offer them. They say that they usually don’t smoke but after I explain that this is in fact the first pack I own and that I usually don’t smoke either, they accept. Usually, Japanese people hold back and don’t approach you so easily, but they seem to have heard the calling of my soul. They are shy about their English, so we barely talk. I introduce myself as Mr. Moon. They call me Moon-san. I put on “Almost blue”, by Chet Baker.