La Passion

"You beautiful chicas come in here!" The Cuban bar hop yelled to the girls from across the street of the most hopping street in Miami on a Saturday night. "Come on in! Entra chica bonitas, es gratis para ustedes! Mira!"

"What about for me?!" Berto yelled from across the street. "I am no chica man!"

"Que Hola man?" the Cuban bar hop yelled back, "only if you bring your amigas contigo."

"What do you girls think?" Berto asked his friends.

"It looks kind of scanky," Larita commented, "como basura."

"It is free," Jasmine Vanilla commented, "if we don't like it we can leave."

"That is true," Larita replied, "but you both promise me if it sucks or there are a lot of dirty guys coming onto us like dogs we leave!"

"Of course my horse," Jasmine Vanilla promised. "We have Berto here to protect us also."

"I will always have your back," Berto looked into Jasmine's blue eyes, "I promise you as long as I am around nobody will hurt you."

"So what is it? You coming in?" The Cuban bar hop yelled with a smile.

"Yeah man," Berto yelled back, "vamanos."

Berto and his two friends entered the club. On the stage was a band playing salsa music, the music Jasmine Vanilla felt through her veins pumping to her heart. She loved the music like she loved rice and beans and tostones de platanos. The music made her heart beat in sync to the music.

Jasmine Vanilla, a girl as white as snow, blond hair and blue eyes, was not a native to the Caribbean latin Americans but fell in love with the culture on her various trips to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba. She swore that the Caribbean latinos were vastly different then the South American and Mexican latinos, a distinction very few people could differentiate unless they were of Latin decent.

"Wow, live music!" Larita yelled and danced her way to the bar, Berto and Jasmine Vanilla followed.

"What do you girls want?" Berto asked pulling out his wallet, "it is on me."

"I will have a Cuba Libre," Larita said with a smile.

"The same for me," Jasmine Vanilla said to Berto.

"Dos Cuba Libres Mi mano!" Berto yelled to the bartender.

"Cuba Libre!!" The bartender yelled with a smile and threw the bottle of Bicardi Rum in the air flipping it around once before catching it and pouring it in three separate cups.

"Cuba Libre!!!!" several men sitting on bar stools around the bar yelled "Yeah!! Cuba Libre!"

The bartender filled the glasses with coke and handed them to Berto, "we take our Cuba Libre very seriously tu sabes mi mano?"

"De verdad," Berto shook the bartenders hand slipping him a five dollar bill trip, "start a tab for me amigo mio."

"No problema mi pana!" The bartender tucked the five dollar bill in his shirt pocket.

Berto handed the girls their drinks.

"To a long life full of happiness and friends!" Jasmine yelled proposing a cheer.

"Salud!!" Larita and Berto yelled, they clanked their cups together and drank.

"Mierda!" Larita coughed, "That shit is strong!"

"Just how I like it!" Jasmine fought back the cringe of a stiff drink burning down her throat.

"That is my girl Jasmine!" Berto yelled, "she can drink anything!"

Just as Jasmine finished her Rum and Coke with a lime the band stopped playing.

"We don't do this very often," the lead singer said, "but we don't usually have such a talented artist in our midst, and she is here. Aqui!! at this poor Cuban piece of trash bar!"

The crowd laughed "Hey!!" The owner of the bar yelled with a smile, "you want punch!?"

The lead singer laughed, "maybe a little later," he laughed, "no but seriously we have a very special guest here, her name is.....drums please...."

The drums played...

"May I present to you," the lead singer smiled, "Rosa Maria Martinez!"

Everyone cheered, whistling and yelling loudly.

Rosa Maria Martinez, a famous latin singer in the late 90's, known throughout the latin world, came from the shadows of the corner of the club nobody seemed to be aware of, or that it had possessed such a famous and esteemed person.

"Aye Dios Mio!" Larita yelled, "it is actually her! I haven't seen or heard from her in years."

"Yes," Jasmine Vanilla was fully aware of Rosa, "ever since she confessed her love to a woman she had lost most her popularity in the latin world."

"It is sad," Larita said quietly to herself. "She is such a talented artist."

"Shhhh...." Berto hissed trying to listen to Rosa.

"Gracias," Rosa Maria took the microphone, "Gracias amigos y amigas. I did not expect to be welcome back to Miami so warmly. Come to think of it... I have not been to Miami in several years."

"Somebody get the woman a drink!" Someone from the crowd yelled.

"Wow!" Rosa said as she was handed a shot glass full of rum, "the drink of my people."

She took a drink, everyone cheered!

"Enough talk," Rosa said fighting back the strong drink in her stomach, "this first song is to my ciudad, Miami!"

"She looks great," Jasmine Vanilla admired her idol begin to sing the latin rhymes to the city of her upbringing, Miami.

"Let's have some shots!" Berto proposed to the two girls.

One shot turned into two, then three then four... The drunker Jasmine Vanilla became the more she danced, until she got to a point where she could no longer dance and had to have some air.

"I will be right back amigos," Jasmine said and stumbled out the back door of the club.

Berto began to follow Jasmine....

"She will be alright," Larita grabbed Berto's shirt, "dance with me."

Jasmine had just made it out the door before she began to feel dizzy and vomited in the back alley. She regained her breath relieved to feel a tiny bit better and sat down on the street, leaning against the concrete of the building.

She tried to clear her thoughts, she had a hard time thinking outside of her love sickness for Louise, her love which barely began, never really ended and didn't seem to get anywhere despite her efforts.

She wondered what to do with her heart. Something so broken only hurting her more and more everyday. She wanted to discard it, destroy it, burn it, anything to make the pain go away.

"Ughhhhhh!!" Jasmine Vanilla groaned and took another drink, attempting to drowned her sorrows.

"Oh!" a voice from the open backdoor way of the club. "this spot is taken I see."

"No, no!" Jasmine Vanilla said politely only to realize that the voice was from her idol Rosa Maria MArtinez herself. "Please have a seat."

"Ummm, seguro," Rosa sat down next to Jasmine, "I see you don't smoke, mind if I light up?"

"Not at all," Jasmine tried to force a smile but was so deep in thought, sorrow, that not even Rosa could cheer her up, "please be my guest."

"I used to come to this club often when I was a little younger," Rosa lit the cigarette.

"is that right?" Jasmine Vanilla asked.

"Yes," Rosa said with glossy eyes, "I swore I would never come here again."

"Why not?" Jasmine asked with curiosity.

"Well, it was probably in the mid nineties," Rosa said opening up the book of what was secret and unknown, "before I was famous."

"What happened?" Jasmine asked.

"I would play at this club," Rosa inhaled the cigeratte, "I was in my early twenties and already the lead singer of my band. I played here every weekend. I guess you could say I was lucky my dad, who is a straight up Cuban, had close ties with the owner of this club. That was my foot in the door.

"So I played here. I played passionately, my whole life ahead of me. I sang songs of love, life and loss.

"But I knew nothing of these things..." Rosa stared at the top of her cigarette, she watched as the end slowly turned from bright white paper to ash, "I sang the words but didn't feel it in my heart."

"Sometimes I wish I knew nothing of love," Jasmine said looking down at her shoes.

"Don't ever say that!" Rosa snapped, "so.... I sang every weekend hoping to be noticed by a talent scout, but nobody seemed interested.

"I didn't understand the words I was singing, it is kind of like speaking a language that you don't really know." Rosa inhaled her cigarette "La passion!!! What is your name?"

"Jasmine," Jasmine replied.

"La Passion Jasmine!!" Rosa smiled, "Don't ever forget that!"

"The passion?" Jasmine asked.

"Yes!!" Rosa said, "the key to every success in vida, life is passion. It is also the key to happiness. The reason nobody recognized my music at this time was because I was missing the passion!"

"So how did you get 'la passion'?" Jasmine asked searching inside of Rosa answers to her own questions."

"It all started one stormy night," Rosa reflected back 15 years ago, "we had more customers then usual, I thought for sure that someone would recognize my music as good and give me more popularity thus enhancing my career in music. I was singing my music and then suddenly saw the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I was surprised to even be attracted to a woman, much less a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes."

"Hey! What is wrong with that!?" Jasmine laughed.

"Nothing except at that point in my life I had never been with a woman," Rosa laughed, "but that night I was more surprised to be attracted to a gringa then the fact that I was indeed attracted to a woman."

"That is kinda funny," Jasmine said laughing, "Who would have thought, you must have known you were gay before hand."

"Exactly," Rosa flicked the butt of her cigarette across the alley, "As soon as she looked at me, I was in the middle of singing, and I forgot the words. I was in awe, kind of like seeing the ocean for the first time, beautiful and words cannot describe. I started singing, I sang that entire night with a passion I had never known before, la passion. She watched me sing all night."

"Did you ever talk to her?" Jasmine asked.

"After the show she stayed to help us put our instruments away. I gave her a private lesson in playing the guitar. We became instant friends, the best of friends in fact, she came every weekend to hear me play, and my music became better and better."

"I played best when she was watching me, the only blond in the crowd dancing and cheering. She brought me drinks between songs, she even told me I sang best when I had a few shots of Tequila. Perhaps she was right."

"But I knew inside, I sang best when she was there watching me. We spent hours talking after closing hours on the roof, smoking cigarettes, sharing a bottle of Rum.

"That is where she confessed her love for my music and more importantly her love for me. My life would never be the same."

"Ah amor!" Rosa pulled a flask from her jacket and had a sip, "Things were really great for us, our secret love..."

"What happened to her?" Jasmine reached for Rosa's flask and had a sip preparing for a seemingly heart wrenching story.

"I left her," Rosa said with regret in her eyes, "I was discovered and had a record deal. I was to be recorded. She wanted to come with me, I begged the producers to allow her to go, but they would not allow it."

"Why not?" Jasmine took another sip.

"They caught us kissing on stage, we were both really drunk. It was no longer a secret, and the producers refused to sign a lesbian. I lied to them and told them it was a one time thing and one never happen again."

"Oh my gosh!" Jasmine responded. "I am shocked! you are so open now!"

"I ended it," Rosa Maria Martinez looked at the stars, "that was the night I shall regret forever and I swore I would never come here again."

"Why tonight?" Jasmine asked.

"I was hoping to see her and beg her for forgiveness," Rosa said, "I don't even know what she looks like anymore, its been over a decade, then I saw you."

"ME?"

"You look exactly like her 15 years ago," Rosa looked at Jasmine, "I thought you were a ghost of my past, I had to follow you outside to make sure."

"What a compliment!" Jasmine said with a smile.

"So now I barely know you and I have already told you what the press has always wanted to know," Rosa said, "I can tell I can trust you not to share this with anyone."

"Of course not," Jasmine stood up, "I hope that you find her."

"Do yourself a favor Jasmine," Rosa stood up, "When you have 'la passion' you hold tight to it because if not you may end up spending over a decade regretting."

"Gracias," Jasmine let the words sink in and returned to her friends.