Misty afternoons

There are those who say that in life everything is circular, perhaps that is why we have the impression of having lived through similar things over and over again, as if the events were repeating themselves.

In the years of my childhood I lived in a hilly area west of Caracas. At that time there was still a lot of vegetation, which facilitated the formation of fog, almost every afternoon a dense fog came down from the highest areas of the mountain and covered everything.

In the rainy season the fog became more intense and the afternoons much colder than usual. In that weather my brothers and I would lie in bed, listening to the radio, talking or playing any game we invented. It was hard for us to get up to attend to our homework.

In those cases my mother always used an infallible formula to lift our spirits, she would put a good piece of cake on the table with a big cup of hot coffee.

That combination seemed to have a magical effect on us, we felt that something was moving inside us. A few minutes after drinking that coffee we had enough energy to start doing our homework, we felt no need to go back to bed.

That association of rain, fog and coffee, remained fixed in me as if it were an imprint. And at different times in my life I have been fortunate enough to relive it.

Many years later, when I was already married and had my children, one of my brothers bought a small farm in a mountain area very similar to the one from our childhood days. I don't think his choice was a coincidence, perhaps he also left that mark.

The whole family would often gather there, it was a very nice place where we would spend our vacation days.

On rainy afternoons, the fog and the cold would also roll in, and my children and I would stay in bed, talking all kinds of nonsense.

But my mother always had other plans in mind. At those times she was provoked to play bingo. Then she would apply the old childhood formula to get us all out of bed. She would call us to the table where she had already served some delicious slices of cake with big cups of hot coffee.

That coffee had the same effect on my children and me, and before we had finished it we were ready to start the bingo games that lasted until the evening hours.

At present I am very fortunate to live in a mountainous area north of the city of Maracay. Due to deforestation there is no longer the same amount of fog as there was thirty years ago when I arrived here. However, in the rainy season it is common for a little fog to form in the middle of the mountain. At those times I always ask my wife if we can have a cup of coffee and talk for a while.

One of the things that gives me great pleasure is to sit on my porch on rainy afternoons and have a cup of coffee with milk, I love to watch the movement of the water droplets from the ceiling to the ground.

I am one of those people whose mood is lifted by coffee, that drink is associated with the best moments of my life, that's why whenever I drink it my happiness increases a little bit.

Thank you for your time.