It's a small world, afterall.

The last time I visited Rio De Janeiro was in March of 1998, 5 years ago. On that trip I happened to have been introduced to a girl named Cristina (named changed to protect the guilty). I was sitting at the beachfront cafe Meia Petaca with a more or less Brasilian friend named Roger. Roger was a big help sometimes, and a pain in the ass at others, but he did do me one as it turned out to be big favor. I saw a group of girls sitting about three tables away from me. One of the girls absolutely hit my hot button. Medium height, slender, about 20 years old, shoulder length jet black hair, beautiful face and very innocent looking and acting. I asked Roger to check her out for me and see if she would like to join me for a drink, which he did and she accepted. She had been in town for 2 days, was from a small town north of Rio named Vitoria and was only planning to stay in Rio for two weeks. She barely left my side for the next three days. We danced at Help, I took her to see Titanic at the cinema, lunches, dinners, etc. Never asked for any money, but received what I gave her which was very fair without looking and without commenting. The third day was my last day in Rio and to be honest I was just about out of money. I told her that we could go eat dinner and have drinks until it was time for me to go or I could give her some money for her time and services that day, but not both. I told her that I would wire her some money if she chose to go to dinner, which she said was fine. After an early dinner, we went to Meia Petaca to have a few last drinks before I had to catch a taxi to the airport. She wanted to go to her apartment to change and told me she would be back in a 1/2 hour, just in time for me to leave. I had a few drinks waiting on her all the time watching the clock as it was getting time to leave. I waited just about as long as I could and no Cristina. Finally I walked back to my hotel and caught a cab to the airport, positive that I would never see her again and that my impressions of her being an innocent young girl were surely wrong, but that she had been a very good actress. All the warmth, all the looks, all the attention was, by the time I got to the airport, nothing but a very realistic illusion. I check in at the ticket counter, feeling pretty low, when all of a sudden I hear my name being called. It is her!! She just missed me at Meia Petaca, just missed me at the hotel and just barely caught me at the airport. No illusions for this boy, she liked me, she really liked me!! I know better than to continue a relationship such as this after a trip, so no illusions about that. No address's exchanged, no phone numbers, etc. Just great memories and some pictures to jog those memories were all I was going to carry with me. By the way, I wired her some money the next day, just as promised.

Over the next few months, reflecting on my time with her and looking at her pictures brought me many warm memories. As time passed I thought of others, eventually her pictures found their way to the bottom of the pile and eventually were discarded. Such is life.

Back to the present. My return to Rio after a five year absence was much anticipated. I arrive at my hotel and my friend Win/Wilco greets me before I even get in the door. "You look like someone who would like to go with me to Solarium terma" he says. "Lets go" I say. Fifteen minutes later we are on the way. In the taxi, I related the story I just told you to Wilco. We walk into Solarium, check in at the counter and are headed back to the locker room. We see these three girls from behind and Wilco says what do you think about that. I tell him that the ass on the girl in the middle is to die for. A quick change, a shower, a steam bath, a shave and I suddenly find myself standing at the bar in the boite ordering a caipirinha and looking at a beautiful array of available women. Must be my lucky day, as the first girl that approaches me is the one with the nice ass that I saw when we walked in. She looks me straight in the eyes and says; "I know you!" I tell her that she doesn't know me, I have never been to Solarium and haven't even been in Rio for five years. She walks away leaving me a little confused. A few minutes later she comes back and says, "Your name is Ricardo, you are from Texas and I have your picture. Don't you recognize me. I am Cristina." Unbelievable!! The last girl I see in Rio, this Cristina of my memories, is the first girl I speak with in Rio five years later. No longer kind of a gangly young girl, but a beautiful young women, with jet black hair down to the middle of her back, a nose job and there she is standing right in front of me.

I am floored. I can hardly speak. Then I start thinking. Pretty much a bad thing for me in this type of situation-thinking that is. From a young girl just off the bus to top tier Solarium women. What is she like. Should I find out. Do I want to know. I am finally able to speak to her after more than several minutes. Not really enough time to regain my composure. I wimp out. I tell her I just got off the plane, I am really tired, so don't want to have a session, etc. I did manage during the conversation to ask her if she was still like the sweet, innocent girl I met five years ago. She gave me what I thought was the perfect answer. "Sometimes." I told her that I would return to Solarium the next day and would see her. I chose not to partake of any of the girls at the terma that day because I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't go with her. Beside I really wasn't sure I had a good answer for her. I did give her my hotel number just in case. The next morning she calls me and tells me that she will not be at work that day as she is sick. but to come the day after that. She also left me her phone number again just in case. I go to Solarium the next day and she is not there. I take a girl, but wish it were her. I never call her, I go to Solarium every day, I never see her. I thought a lot of her while I was there. I have no real good reason as to why I didn't call her, just as I have no good reason as to why I went there everyday to see if she was there. As I was flying back at the end of my trip I was thinking you know you did the right thing for yourself, you preserved a memory that you could not possibly place a value on. As I sit here writing this, I am thinking that I can't wait to get back to Rio so I can track her down. We will see.

Wow. Amazing story. You fellas wanna hear what a small world it is?? I had never talked to or met Dino from this board. He was some dude I met in Rio at Alcazar. He finds out that I'm from the same city he is from. (One of the largest cities in the country).
Cool dude. We don't really hang out but tell one another that maybe we'll have lunch in our town one day. When I got back from Rio we exchange numbers and one day he calls me. We are both working in our offices on a Saturday. Turns out he works one block from me!! I go over to his office. Cool dude.

Next week we have lunch. I'm telling him about some girls I've dated in Dallas. His eyes get HUGE. He tells me he dated the same exact girl I did!! Here is a perfect stranger I met halfway across the world and we dated the same girl in the United States. Granted, he dated her years before I did but still shows you what a small world we live in.