When the universe is listening

Writers have a lonely job, or at least I’m the one who believes that. Your friends are your characters, you talk to them; you get angry with them and so on. Writers also spend a great deal of time in their studio, if they are lucky to have one, if not in their bedroom, pretending they have a wonderful window view. Last year I decided to leave that comfort zone of mine, go out and make some real friends. When I first join the IWNG group I said: Okay, one more online group doesn’t hurt. I’m a passive member of many of them. I don’t even remember how many? But the pictures they (IWNG members) kept posting gave me such a positive feeling that I decided to join them. To make a long story short, I really wanted to be part of the Story Telling & Social Media event, on 18 of October. I had to make some preparation first. After school, kids would have a play date, and I got free time from my work.

I knew they were going to have a raffle, but that particular part just faded away, as I never win a thing. But, on the day of the event when Yustine got that lucky message “a free body massage.” I said to myself: that’s mine. That’s got to be mine. So ladies, please, pick up my name. And then I hear Kristina trying hard to read my name: I helped her of course: It’s Teuta, I said. 

Today it was the day to collect my price.  Even though I had checked up the address thousands of times, I left my house early, just in case. This also because I’m not good at finding the addresses. It looks like my google map is ‘off’ and I end up having a quarrel with the automated female voice of Google, but this is another story. To my surprise, today, I found my way without going the wrong direction first. I told you the universe is listening. I saw myself standing in front of Lefki’s door, twenty minutes early. What should I do? It is cold, so I decided to ring the doorbell. 

We shook hands, in a traditional way, when you meet someone for the very first time. She asked me if I needed something to drink and left me alone for some minutes, just to prepare myself. And here I am now in this little warm room, sitting on this comfortable bed. The scent of jasmine filled my nostrils. A piece of soft relaxing music played in the background.

Lefki made me feel comfortable, and asked if I had any pain. ‘My body and the shoulder – as if my shoulder was not part of my body- hurts,’ I said. I think I was having this pain on my shoulder since I was a student, or maybe before that, I don’t remember. It just stays there and doesn’t want to go away. She smiled softly. “We will work on it,” she said.

I was a bit stressed out at the beginning. I’m the kind of person who loves to talk to strangers, but the ice was quickly broken. She asked where I came from and my first instinct was to cut the conversation short and let her focus on her job. Not because I didn’t want to introduce myself, but because each time I tell people where I come from, they reply with a wry smile and then silence.

But not this time. As soon as she heard I came from Albania, Lefki smiled and replied:

‘Oh, we are neighbours.’ I lifted my body and raised my eyebrows. 

‘I am coming from Greece. Don’t move,’ she said, smiling at me again. That was enough for us both to begin a warm and pleasant exchange of personal stories, experiences and future expectations. 

Let’s turn to the point though, because here comes the best part. I lay down on the bed and she started massaging my body- especially my shoulder- at the beginning soft, and then a bit harder. You know it hurts. We want a massage and then we complain: auw, it hurts. I was tense, my muscles too. So I guess she had a hard time with me. In the end she did some toes massage and all the pieces fall into place. It was almost I was falling to sleep. But then she massaged the big toe of my left foot, and God that makes me wake up. I gave such a piercing cry. She explained that all my emotions and thoughts are reflected there. I didn’t know that. Lefki finished her job and advised me to be more calm and not to think too much. “Yes,” I said to her, even though I thought, It’s easier said than done. 

After a while, I left her massage parlour with a relaxed body and a positive feeling. We even gave each other a hug. I will definitely go there again.

Ps. We can’t experience other people’s experience, so if you want to contact her, or now more about her, follow on Instagram, or Facebook.

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