Eternal Butterfly Papilio Aeternam I

Angier Raphaël

Description

"ETERNAL BUTTERFLY PAPILIO AETERNAM I COMBINES MYSTICISM AND WISDOM INTO AN INSPIRING TALE OF SELF-DISCOVERY,LOVE,HOPE AND FORGIVENESS..."

Charles Coleman, a wealthy middle-aged astrophysicist from Los Angeles, who’s taken a temporary leave of absences from his job, goes through an inner struggle after divorcing his wife Sophia. His life no longer making sense, Charles embarks on a journey to Europe. Stopping for three days in the French Alps, he meets Adeline, a bright spontaneous, and fascinating woman who is about to change his life.

Informations

• Publié par: Angier Raphaël
• Date de parution: 29 juillet 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781644674284
• Langue: English

Extrait

ETERNAL
Butterfly
P APILIO A ETERNAM
I
Copyright © 2018 by Angier Raphaël
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-64467-501-4
ISBN: 978-1-64467-428-4 (e-book)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author and the publisher. Quotes of brief passages may be reproduced in a newspaper, magazine or journal for reviews only.
Book cover and interior design:
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FIRST EDITION
ETERNAL
Butterfly
P APILIO A ETERNAM
I
ANGIER RAPHAËL
“ If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars .”
— Rabindranath Tagore
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
I
L.A. City of Angels.
The Inside Struggle
II
Chamonix. The Alps.
Hope
III
Annecy. The Venice of the Alps.
Love
I
L.A. C ITY OF A NGELS.
T HE I NSIDE S TRUGGLE
JUNE 3, 2017, LOS ANGELES. It was a bright summer morning in the City of Angels. Charles Coleman, a 37-year-old man with medium black hair and a degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics from UCLA, was woken by the sound of his bedroom alarm clock at 6:36 a.m. His house was located in Santa Monica, not far from the beach.
He went in the kitchen, dressed in green shorts and a white 66 football jersey, to have coffee and breakfast. A framed photo of him and his ex-wife, Sophia, hung on the nearby wall. It made him feel uneasy, as it reminded him that she had left him for a lawyer from New York a year and three months ago.
After breakfast, Charles took his coffee to the garden and sat in a wooden chair. The garden was arranged in a pleasant manner, having two small palm trees and numerous beautiful flowers that helped him relax.
He decided to change his clothes and go for a swim at the beach, wanting to forget about the bad mood that had caught up with him. He reached the crowded beach, dressed in a white polo and yellow swimming shorts with a shoulder bag for his book, towel, and bottle of water. He put down the towel to swim in the warm ocean.
He swam nervously, trying to get rid of his negative energy. It exhausted him, so he returned to where he had laid his towel on the shore. He started to read a book about constellations, which caused him to enter a dreamlike state:
Again, surrounded by the same things here when I know this universe is so . . .
What life exists in another galaxy, I wonder . . . ?
After some time, he closed the book, because the noise from the beach had disturbed his reading. He watched the golden sunrays light up the blue ocean and studied the way surfers tried to catch significant waves.
Between his concerns about his problems in life, a handful of sand captured his attention. He turned around and saw his ex-girlfriend.
Jessica was blonde and thirty-three-years-old. She wore a red swimsuit and a pair of white sunglasses. She made fun of Charles, as sand was falling from his hair to his shoulders.
“Hi, Jess! How are you?”
She shrugged in reply, looking amused to see him.
“Thanks for waking me up . . .”
He removed the sand from his hair with a sarcastic smile on his face as she sat next to him. “No problem. It is always a pleasure.”
“Except for your endless pranks, how are you today?”
“I’m fine, thank you. I noticed you were trying to chill out, so I thought some sand on your hair would warm you up. Are you all right?”
Charles removed his glasses from his bag and put them on, looking ahead at the crowded sea. “Perhaps it helped me, I don’t know . . . I’m a little messed up, to be frank, but I’m trying to move on.”
“Maybe you need a holiday.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but I’m not sure. I don’t even know where I’d go first.”
Jessica put her arm across his back and whispered in his ear, “Why don’t you start where your heart tells you?”
A beautiful woman caught Charles’ attention then, making him feel anxious. He turned to Jessica, pretending that nothing was going on.
“Please, don’t . . .”
“Don’t what?”
“Start with your clichés again.”
“Okay. I want you to figure it out for yourself. I can’t tell you where to go.”
A bit offended by his reply, Jessica grabbed his book about constellations from his shoulder bag. She opened it to a page that claimed that the sky had eighty-eight constellations. She closed the book and put it back in his bag.
“I appreciate it, but I’m very indecisive.”
“I see. What are you doing tonight?”
“Nothing special. I’ll probably make dinner and take pity on myself.”
Jessica started to smile as she took off her sunglasses and gently elbowed his ribs. “In that case, invite me over so we can cry together, since I broke up with my fiancé. We can talk more about our lives.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I can already imagine that you’ll reconcile soon. Pay me a visit in the evening after that.”
She seemed intrigued by this as she played with sand.
“Okay, I have to leave for a meeting with an employer in Venice. See you tonight!”
“Bye, crazy!”
Jessica kissed him on the cheek as she rose, and then she left the beach in a hurry. Charles packed up his belongings and went to a local restaurant, since he was hungry after his swim.
After he finished eating, he headed to the supermarket to buy some food for his dinner with Jessica. As he shopped, he looked at his watch: 1:13 p.m. He bought his groceries and then went home, leaving his groceries on the kitchen table. After that, he took a shower and fell asleep.
He woke up and got out of bed. He saw that it was 5:21 p.m. as he came downstairs. He went to the kitchen, prepared fresh salmon with lemon and asparagus, and then put them in the oven.
Twenty-five minutes later, he removed the meal from the oven and placed it next to a bottle of white wine and two wineglasses on the table. He sat on the sofa and read his favorite philosophy book until he heard the doorbell ring.
He opened the front door and found Jessica hiding behind the wall, stretching her hand out with a bottle of white wine. He smiled. “Come on in, dinner is ready!”
Charles closed the door and went to the kitchen to put the bottle in the fridge. Jessica took a seat at the table, looking at the dinner plates with curiosity. “Did you catch it today at the beach?”
“Catch what?” Charles replied.
“This fish. Did you catch it all by yourself?”
He smiled as he came into the room. “You know I don’t fish much.”
“I was joking. But, be honest, did you order it? It looks too tasty to be cooked by you!”
“I can cook a fish, you know. I’m not that helpless. You’ve always known how to make me smile, Jess.”
“Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s because you’re dead serious lately . . .”
“Okay, I can’t argue with that.”
“. . . and you haven’t had someone to disagree with.”
Charles opened the wine bottle and filled the glasses. He lit three candles on the golden chandelier above the table and sat down. “Always the same, Jessica. Few women are like you on this planet. I’m so glad we are friends.”
“You should be!”
“So, how was your day?”
“It was so swell that I don’t even want to talk about it. Please let me enjoy your dead fish right now.”
Charles laughed. After they finished dinner, they went into the living room. Jessica laid on the couch and rested her head on a pillow. She looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Many memories here.”
“Yeah. Good times.”
Charles looked for an old jazz vinyl record. When he found one, he put it into a vintage gramophone and then sat in the armchair in front of Jessica.
She drank from her wineglass. “Do you remember when we promised never to be like anyone else?”
“I remember. And I think we succeeded up to a point, but our options became limited as we get older. It’s similar to Warren lamenting the natural aging process in his song, ‘Life’ll Kill Ya’.’”
“You believe that, huh?”
“Well, at first I didn’t want to, but in time we get accustomed to our habits and routine.”
Jessica clapped her hands unexpectedly. “Then try to change them, silly! Take the first plane out and leave for a while.”
“If only it were that easy . . .”
“As if it were that hard to do,” Jessica said sarcastically.
Her reply amused Charles despite his attempt to remain serious. “Perhaps, but . . .”
“Why don’t you stop barking around and be less naïve? Who’s the one with the clichés now, huh?”
They both laughed. Charles drank the remaining wine from his glass and quickly poured another. Jessica s