Vincent often experienced difficulties recalling specific memories from his past, especially with those related to her. It was the absence in his life that would eventually have a lasting effect, weighing heavily on him during instances and circumstances where she would have been a pillar or someone worth leaning on. Although so many familiar faces would still surround him, nothing could remove the loneliness he felt by imagining that she could have been there to witness and share the overall experience; such as the graduation speeches, the famous hat toss and a fancy dinner as part of the celebrations. Instead, he would have to settle for another accomplished milestone again on his own. Although he would receive several accolades and warm embraces from the majority of his peers, deep inside something was amiss. Perhaps the sight of many mothers gathered around, their maximum joy interpreted by contagious grins; genuine smiles that stretched from one ear to the other, were surely the product of envious feelings even Vincent struggled to comprehend.
It was soon after his mother's death that his grandfather took him in. A man he learned to respect through many important lessons that led to admiration. This sort of appreciation however only lasted until his adolescence. The transition into early adulthood being a huge factor, encouraged the development of personal ethos, ideas and visions about his world; a place far removed from the ideals his grandfather once conformed to. Their differences were often a catalyst for uncomfortable and tense confrontations, encouraged in part by unnecessary altercations due to years of pent-up aggressions which Vincent struggled with despite their similarities; like two celestial bodies orbiting each other under threat of collision.
When Vincent's time came to leave and pursue a higher education, both men seemed equally relieved but not before realizing the implications. Having earned a full scholarship for a master's in International Relations and Diplomacy, it meant he would have to go abroad to Switzerland, a country Vincent considered ironic due to it being a neutral state. Nonetheless the change of scenery in another continent served reassuringly as a stepping stone towards finally becoming a professional and a respectable adult. Despite the distances that kept them apart, father and son made every effort to remain connected and never lose touch.
As much as Vincent knew his grandfather would not be there to attend the festivities planned following the graduation ceremony, the surprise he received instead once it arrived at his dorm; a first class return ticket for his grandson to come home, was considered a second icing on his proverbial cake. And just like that, the amount of sadness Vincent felt earlier that day would soon dissipate, taking with him only those memories cherished best.
On the day of his departure, once his bags were tagged and customs cleared, he impatiently waited for his next flight, longing to finally be home. An email he found unchecked suddenly improved his mood. Although the message was rather short, it was also on point. Julio Fontina, his childhood friend, promised to be at the airport just as they had previously agreed in order to embark on a road trip, they both planned months' prior as a welcoming gift.
With nothing more to do other than wait for his connecting flight, Vincent found an empty seat at a bar and ordered a drink while soccer highlights replayed on one of the four giant screens displaying major sports any traveler could immediately recognize. While sipping a cold beer, Vincent took notice of a tactic a player had executed on TV, which triggered old memories of his from when he was young and in junior high. It was during recess where he and several others played, chasing the same ball hoping to be the one lucky brat who would score a goal and claim fame for a day. Vincent remembered standing out in the field, almost minding his own business when the ball fell to his feet. A quick assist to the closest player nearby effectively allowed him to score a winning goal on the opposing team. Impressed by the unexpected contribution from the kid everyone considered a nerd; Vincent quickly found acceptance and sudden invitations to play alongside Julio and his team of ruthless friends.
The friendship only grew stronger after a confrontation with a popular bully known to always pick on those that were more vulnerable. A combination of not knowing how to fight and the fear of getting hurt, were the reasons that encouraged Vincent to approach Julio for help. Most kids his age feared him or the reputation he had earned for beating any one that stood in his way. On that same afternoon, Vincent watched from the sidelines as his new friend stood up for him and delivered a vengeful beating to the most insecure kid.
Years went by and even though their friendship had solidified like a rock, their differences would often be the source for any indifference shared by each other. This behavior often placed their friendship on the edge of breaking but due to their similarities, they always managed to find truce. Julio was the youngest sibling in his family and also the least supervised, a common trait found in most kids whose parents worked for most of the day and had to rely on the neighborhood itself. The more he thought and pondered, reminiscing about his past, he laughed to himself at how different life was back in those days.
Since Julio was the oldest by just a few months, standing tall with broad shoulders and a muscular build, Vincent often considered him like the older brother he never had. However, they were also exact opposites. Julio being the obvious alpha male, a confident and competitive leader, was often seen as the MVP in almost any sport. Vincent on the other hand grew up uninterested in most social norms, was a loner with a low profile who always felt out of place, due in part to his scrawny appearance, which was a common joke among his peers.
His constant preoccupation, a common symptom of introversion, was also the catalyst for an intrusion into his being, often struggling to adapt to the mentality exercised by a dominant "macho" culture; which usually spent unnecessary time idolizing politics, sexism and soccer among other selfless things.
Having grown up as an only child gave Vincent an array of situations which encouraged him to learn about the art of being alone and how to be comfortable along the way. He often found solace in books, video games and more than anything assisting his grandfather while scavenging for antiques and machinery of all sorts to reverse engineer and in the process, learn how each component worked. Vincent considered himself an omega going into beta, a geek by trade, while his best friend was undoubtedly the alpha jock.
A high level of admiration was an understatement when it came to the way in which he saw his friend. Julio's ability to meet new people and the influence he had over anyone was something Vincent would always envy. It was as if Julio's guard was always down and that difference gave him the ability to read others instantly, and used that valuable information to his convenience.
Most times that tenacity allowed him to make girls laugh within minutes of meeting them, and to his credit, would often end up making out before they got all goofy at the parties they went to. Other times, the opposite would also take place; girls attracted by Julio's unstoppable confidence would entice them to make a move on him instead, which only solidified his appeal and social engineering skills.
All of these general interactions were quite a phenomenon for Vincent growing up alongside Julio's demeanor. Mostly due to his introspective personality, which he often thought it got in the way, acting as an obstacle and obstructing his path towards a collective environment filled with many friendships and meaningful connections. Although he was well aware from a very young age that being an introvert would somehow affect his adulthood, he often found himself pushing back feelings of jealousy towards his best friend and the majority of his exploits, even though this often proved difficult, due to his tendency to ruminate on trivial things.
Nevertheless, Vincent's analytical side often allowed him to see things from outside the box and understand that his friend had grown up with greater advantages. Julio was part of a very large household and had four siblings a few years older than him that shared some of their experienced bravado. His family was also very educated and financially established thanks to several hardware stores they owned, and which sold and distributed anything needed for a wide range of construction. In a city with nothing but high rising potential and ambitious growth, their business was considered a prosperous and very profitable enterprise. This in return gave every family member the opportunity to help out in all areas of running a business, which encouraged a further development of everyone's social and economic skills.
Vincent on the other hand was raised without a similar structure. Because he was brought up by his grandfather, that alone often gave him a sense of being poor. It often produced feelings of emotional inferiority due to a lack of both parents to consider his own. Although he was too young to understand or register what happened to his mother, the stories were always the same. Blinded by love, she became a nomad at heart. She traveled and lived abroad, mostly in pursuit of the love of her life, while that man seemed to be after something else.
Recalling his early teens, Vincent thought about a particular day in which he had found some of his mother´s personal possessions, mostly out of spite and in response to a scolding he received earlier that day. Her belongings were kept in her old traveling case; a brown leather sling backpack that also had a collage of postal stamps from all the places she visited.
Inside was a stash of old t-shirts that he at first thought seemed out of place, yet were there to protect a hidden rectangular tin can that contained her treasures and mementos collected over some years. Several bundles of handwritten letters were barely held together by stale and dried up rubber bands that would snap apart as Vincent looked through several envelopes as he meticulously examined each of its contents. Although the majority of the letters were difficult to read due to the cursive manner in which they had been written, his interest was mainly caught by a few worn out postcards from several exotic places and a series of photographs that appeared to be straight out of the TV show M.A.S.H. The pictures were composed of several soldiers posing in front of medical military camps. Tents emblazoned with red crosses and in the background, a row of several Huey type helicopters with mounted machine guns on the side.
One photograph in particular stood out due to a personal note on the back that read,
"+1, Argentina 1972". Vincent's mother was in the photograph, looking young, radiant beyond words and full of life. She held a baby in her arms while a man in army pants and a stethoscope hanging from around his neck stood next to her and grinned at his child.
All the correspondence had been from the same person, Vincent's father, a man he could not recall ever meeting but had strange memories of him wearing military fatigues. Multiple letters had been sent and received, a waste of ink in matters of resentment, jealousy and open-ended arguments that remained without finding closure. From what he could barely gather, his father had been a doctor affiliated with the United Nations and was often stationed in numerous conflict zones around the world.
The last letter he opened to inspect included accusations of being a war criminal, which surprised Vincent as he tried to understand what it all meant. The paper appeared to have gotten wet. Words were smeared and several phrases would remain lost forever in some form of regret. His conception as he suspected had been a mistake, a product of an unplanned set of emotions that eventually left mother and son stranded on their own, yearning for a family, despite the indifference the love of her life made clear soon after his child was born.
Once the realization hit him, Vincent understood the profound impact it must have had on his mother; perhaps enough to disrupt her equilibrium, which pushed her into a severe depression that eventually led to her demise. Although tragic, all of this took place during Vincent's infancy, successfully shielding him from the emotional turmoil that his grandfather had to endure on his own. Something he probably considered ironic once put into perspective, given that Vincent's grandmother had died during childbirth, which also left her husband to raise a daughter on his own.
Despite all this, Vincent's grandfather proved to be resilient and strong in his conviction. He taught him everything he knew and was always kind, principled and wise. Soon after the end of the Second World War, he quit the army and became a civil engineer who found plenty of interesting work abroad, eventually taking a big risk of moving to Argentina in search of a better life.
According to small accounts occasionally shared with him while learning about both World Wars in school, his grandfather had been a captain in a Junior Officer Division with the Italian infantry, and, had seen enough atrocities to deter him from continuing a military career. Although he never discussed much of it in detail, Vincent often pressed him about his experiences, but would stop mid-sentence and pretend his grandson was too young to know certain specifics. After all, he was very reserved when it came to his past and Vincent never really enquired much after a few attempts, sensing that some of his questions irritated him and brought back awful memories he tried so hard to suppress. However, when not busy at work, he was also an excellent cook and enjoyed recounting many stories behind some of the dishes he used to prepare for his division, while in service and abroad during various special occasions such as Christmas and New Year's Eve. Sometimes, his birthdays were celebrated with a special feast. His grandfather would splurge by taking a few days to prepare different combinations of freshly made pasta smothered in creamy sauces and other types of dishes from his Italian repertoire.
Every time Vincent smelled the aroma of basil over fried garlic and white wine, the combination triggered some of the best memories from when he grew up as an only child.