What a stressing day! I was so glad to arrive at my flat in San Clemente, California. It had been a hard day at work with many meetings to attend and many projects to finish. ‘Nothing that some mates and hot croissants can solve,’ I thought.

As soon as I finished the mates, I picked up my RELIVEIT 3.0 which is a device to relive someone’s memories. I needed to clear my mind. I placed the device on my head, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and immersed myself in the simulation.

Ten seconds later, I was standing on a bus that suddenly stopped. I almost fell to the floor, but I was grasped to the bus bars.

‘Are you ok?’ A dark-haired teenager asked me. ‘Yeah, I’m ok,’ I replied her.

‘They don’t give someone time to react,’ she told me seriously.

‘They drive like crazy bastards. They are going to kill me one day,’ I said, and she started laughing. Her serious look was gone.

‘It is so weird. We had taken the same bus but have never spoken to each other before,’ Cami said.

‘And we go to the same year and division,’ I added.

‘Yeah, It’s so crazy. Hi, I’m Camila. We go to the same year,’ she introduced herself. It was the beginning of a new friendship.

Suddenly, everything went black. After a couple of seconds, I found myself in the yard of my high school, which was located in Buenos Aires. I was wearing a marine blue suit and sitting on a worn-out bench.

‘I’m going to miss you,’ I heard a voice next to me. It was Cami who was wearing a simple but attractive red dress.

‘I won’t,’ I told her, and she patted me on my head. ‘You’re mean,’ she said while I was laughing.

‘Of course, I’m going to miss you. But, don’t worry. We’ll continue meeting each other,’ I promised Cami, lying her head on my right shoulder.

‘I hope so. We had so many good moments in the last years,’ she said and turned her eyes at me. I couldn’t avoid them how hard I tried.

‘University won’t be the same without you,’ I admitted her and got closer to her.


All of a sudden, I stopped feeling Cami’s face on my shoulder. The temperature decreased abruptly, and I was covered in many layers of clothes. Hills covered by pehuenes and araucarias and cabins of different colours surrounded a vast lake that expanded for kilometres. The sky was flooded by stars that overshadow the full moon.

‘I wish these holidays last forever,’ said someone next to me. It was Camila. I would never forget those holidays. We travelled throughout Patagonia Argentina went to places that blow my mind. I have never seen such beautiful landscapes before that trip.

‘I won’t get over this trip,’ I told her, looking at her eyes, confusing them with two stars.

She turned to me, and we were face to face.

‘Neither me, but it needs something more to be perfect,’ she told me in a low voice. ‘What is missing?’ I asked Cami, and she approached her head towards mine. We were face to face.

‘Close your eyes’ she told me, and seconds later, my lips were touching hers.

I could feel the warmth and softness of her lips that I treated with delicateness and kindness. My heart was beating as fast as a Ferrari. The temperature rose, and the cold disappeared. Nothing could distract me, not even the most annoying noise. Unfortunately, it would have to come to an end.


In the blink of an eye, Camila banished like dust. I sighed and opened my eyes: I was in a colourful and refined garden. The sky was falling apart, explaining why my clothes and hair were so soaked. I could hear someone crying next to me. ‘She told me that you would always be the love of her life,’ that person told me.

I immediately took off the helmet. I could feel the tears slowly dropping from my eyes. ‘No, I cannot stand that,’ I said. I wished that moment was only a nightmare, but it wasn’t. It was my saddest memory. A memory of a pain that would never heal.


© Jero Gandini