The girl from the other side

Yesterday I was so bored that I started to read the recipe from the payment of credits in my cell phone. I read about this promotion. If I changed my accounts settings I would get a bonus of 250 megabytes for Internet usage and a hundred free txt messages.

I decided to call the phone central and change my settings to win these bonuses. A recorded voice answered the phone:

- To recharge you cell phone credits please press 1. To change you settings of your cell phone please press 2.

Tuuuuuu

- Thanks for calling. We are redirecting you to one of our attendants. - A song started.

I was expecting to deal just with electronic messages. Because talking with companies by telephone is always a challenge for me. That’s because my English skills still not that good. Actually I never enjoyed telephones talks, even in Portuguese, my first language. I intended to take my promotion as quick as possible and nothing more, cutting all the small talk.

For incredible that it seems, the waiting song wasn't that bad. Actually I recognized that music. It was from Julia Deans. A well known New Zealander artist. I knew that song because the week before Julia was at my school doing a lyrics and composition workshop and stage performance. Of course, I would not loose this opportunity of knowing more about New Zealand music and having a personal contact with an artist from that level.

Back in Brasil, I had a lot of contact with musicians. What improved a lot of my work in this area. My uncle is a competent composer and performer. My mother was a singer in the past, my father plays the guitar and from him I got the bests critics. I use to know every kind of musicians and perform to them on Christmas eve and others parties at my uncle's house.

I was hopping that she could give me her formula to write songs. I didn’t use to have any technique to write songs in Portuguese. So I was kind of lost to compose in another language.

She performed to the participants of the workshop songs from her next album and a few other. Just voice and guitar, that was the difference between the song in the phone-line. The waiting song now had a base line, drums, computer effects and edition. But the essence was the same. And I was glad for her.

In the end, it was an awesome experience to get together with Julia Deans because I got more confidence to write in English. She made me realize that it doesn’t exist any magic formula. The only need is courage enough to try again and again ans practice this until you get your song done. The same way it was with my first compositions in Portuguese.

Julia commented that she was very happy when she heard her song playing in the super market the first time. And I was there listening her song in the phone company’s waiting line. I would like to tell her about this. But she would have to accept me on Facebook first.

Finally a woman answered the call. She had this accent, seemed that she was french. I think she noted my accent as well but didn't want to comment, the same way I didn't say nothing about her. She was being very gentle and offered to figure it out few other problems that I had with my account. I could say that I was curious about her... But I was feeling so pathetic to be interested in the girl from the phone company that I saw myself like those lonely guys who spends hypes of time hitting on voices paid to be gentle and explore them in change of phone services. But in the end she said:

- Nice to talk with you! – That was enough to make me feel a bit more special than the other thousands calling her earlier on the day. I said the same to her. But I didn't have courage  enough to ask about her accent or where was she from. I was to embaraced with the fact that I could be one of those lonely guys.

We could have met one day. But of course adding her on Facebook first, to check her photo and prevent any problem. She could be an attendant on India in a call center or could work in the next town. But where she lives, or if she was really a French girl, would be a mystery forever. That was my last chance to ask these questions to the girl from the other side and it passed trough my fingers.

Later on the day the company sent me a message saying that I called to them earlier and they would like an evaluation about their services. There was my opportunity. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something, conceding me one more chance to know that girl. Maybe it was our fate, who knows? Than I answered that I would give the evaluation about the lady who attended me and if they sent me her personal contact. If they didn’t I would change of phone company. But they just sent an automatic message saying: "Thanks for your time! Attentiouslly, your phone company!”. At least it worthed the try.

Erik Schnabel