Zachary enters a small studio with textured, foam-covered walls designed to absorb sound and prevent echoes. He sits with exceptional posture and arched back on a stool across from the hosts, comfortably positioned so that the microphone is only a few inches from his mouth. The taping begins when the producer switches on the red light. Aleksey, standing just outside the transparent door, faces the hallway.
Zachary is introduced and answers questions about his some of his training techniques, his vegan diet, and his efforts to avoid strangers who think they are tough and want to "test" their strength by challenging Zachary to a punch.
"Tell us about loneliness," the retired athlete broadcasts. "With the travel, the pressure, and the injuries, is it possible to build a life with someone special?"
"Frankly, no," Zachary answers. "Let me temper my answer by noting that there are many men and women in the fighting leagues who are building futures with spouses and partners. So we have to rule out a blanket response that applies to everyone. I know that for myself, and the fighters I am closest to, regardless of whether their careers have peaked or not, meaningful romance is not possible."
"How sad," the longtime sports journalist broadcasts. "Why?"
"You find that sad?" Zachary asks. "Athletes are not the only people who sometimes must delay that part of their lives. What is the hurry? Would you want to fall in love and then regret it? Blame someone else for your life getting complicated and goals that are not achieved? No. That is not fair to anyone."
Aleksey, unable to hear the taped interview, sends text messages on his phone to his boyfriend while guarding Zachary's presence in the studio.
"Are you falling in love with me or my hair?" he writes.
"It better be the former, babe," Rafael answers, also by text. "Why?"
"I went to a salon today and made kind of a big change."
"Color? Curls? Braids?"
"I'll show you tonight on a video call," Aleksey writes.
"Any news from your boss on choosing his new home?" Rafael asks.
"Not yet. The decision is on his mind though. Hopefully we will know soon."
"Vegas. Please let it be Vegas."
"I know. I want that too, Rafael."
Behind Aleksey, inside the studio, the journalist host closes the taping with a rapid-fire word association game with Zachary.
"Victory," the host says, raising his voice as if asking a question.
"Discipline," Zachary immediately answers, without missing a beat.
"Lose."
"Recover."
"Chase."
"Conquest," Zachary answers.
"Strength," the host says.
"Seeds."
"Love."
"Later."
After the red light extinguishes and they leave the studio, the hosts plead with Zachary to let them treat him to supper at a four star restaurant on the waterfront. He politely declines, fibbing that he has a dinner appointment, but thanks the hosts for bringing him in for the interview. He promises to return when invited again in the future.
"I almost gave too much away," Zachary says to Aleksey, telling him about the word association game as they ride down the elevator.
"Someone clever is going to remember you associated seeds with strength," Aleksey replies. "I bet you get asked about it in a future interview. Do you have a plausible answer ready?"
"Sure. I can detour and talk about the benefits of a plant-based diet."
"Did the interviewers ask anything else related to sexuality?"
"Nope."
"Would you admit to your desires for men?" Aleksey asks.
"I would," Zachary answers. "But they never ask."
8
Observatory
Due to the amiable 75-degree temperature and cloudless sky, crowds of local people from Los Angeles and tourists from around the world are converging at the observatory on Mount Hollywood. Nobly roosting like an art deco palace on the south-facing slope, Griffith Park Observatory and its three copper domes give visitors the sensation of being suspended above the Los Angeles basin, from hills and neighborhoods west of the downtown skyscrapers to the Pacific Ocean on the east.
Gustavo nonchalantly blends in among the masses, leisurely touring the interior exhibits, planetarium, telescopes, and educational theater. Though fascinated by astronomy and space, this afternoon his primary interest is the human condition, not stars and planets. Gustavo is people-watching, casually, so as not to disturb anyone, stare, cruise, or invoke alarm or suspicion.
Specifically, he is trying to identify and behold auras. Gustavo knows that the concepts of people and animals, and perhaps even locations, having unique auras is at least a century old. It is even traceable back to ancient times with different terminology, but it is not something that he has seriously contemplated and focused on until now. He mistakenly thought that auras, or energies and intangible forces, were claimed solely for the realms of religion and medicine.
Challenging himself to ignore lines and shapes of bodies and faces, Gustavo finds that it is not difficult to perceive an individual's energy. Body language alone is revelatory and it is not arduous to discern a person's vitality apart from her or his clothing or facial expressions. He sees that these detectable energies change, obviously and easily, depending on a person's emotional state. For example, these types of transformations dramatically occur while he witnesses friends sharing gossip, lovers speaking to each other with intimacy, and young people battling their parents for snacks or souvenirs.
Gustavo's people-watching efforts are even less complicated outdoors on the plaza north of the observatory entrance. On the vast expanses of grass lawns between the entry pathways, people are visiting, enjoying picnics, taking photographs, typing into their phones, or waiting for their friends or family to arrive. Gustavo sits and relaxes on the grass, wearing a ball cap and sunglasses, while people stream in and out of the attraction. The people around him are mostly calmer too, which is understandable since they are not dealing with lines or interacting much with strangers. Like Gustavo, they are in a public space, but afforded some privacy, which alters their demeanor.
As he is taking prolonged and meditative breaths, Gustavo's epiphany dawns. A visual tone materializes for each person he examines. Some glow, some don't. Some are rich with color, while others are in a haze. Some radiate energy, some absorb it. There are people surrounded by ethereal vibrations, ranging from delicate popping motions to raging swirls and piercing gushes. Gustavo studies dozens of strangers in this manner and every one of them reveals unique qualities of an aura with color and motion.
Beholding an elderly couple holding hands and moving from the bronze sundial to the obelisk-like Astronomers Monument in the center of the plaza, Gustavo's revelations advance further. The couple revolves around the monument, looking at the sculptured faces of the six featured astronomers: Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, John Herschel, Hipparchus, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton. The older woman and man possess their own energies, but their auras interact, creating something effervescent and dynamic.
His breakthrough makes him restless. Gustavo leaps to his feet, travels around the grand dome, overlooks the breadth of Los Angeles before him, and tackles his skepticism. Is this a true insight or a playful imagination? His thoughts ponder whether he just sees what he wants to see or if there is really more-a noticeable energy or aura accompanying physical life forms. Millions of people live in the miles stretching before him. Each one of them has a discernible spirit?
Gustavo is not threatened with the notion that people and animals have souls. He believes they do. But something that is so essential and personal as a spirit being an expressive and existing form, not an idea, is phenomenal.
If accurate, it potentially changes everything.
Numerous serpentine-like trails maze through the landscape surrounding the observatory. They are popular with joggers, hikers, families, couples, photographers, and others pursuing outdoor adventure. Gustavo launches onto a primary trail descending eastward from the plaza and then south down the slope of Mount Hollywood. He puts his new discoveries to the test, observing several people enjoying the trail around him, and within half an hour his epiphany is confirmed.
Spirits are visually detectable and unique, and they attain new forms, speed, and power when entangled with the other auras of others.
Gustavo crawls under the shady branches of a small tree to escape his surroundings and record his discoveries without interruption. He sits with his back to the trail and types his notes into his phone, trying to select accurate words that will help him summon and remember everything he has witnessed. Gustavo fills many screens with text, including facts and everything flowing in his thoughts. Countless minutes roll by, shadows lengthen and the sky darkens, and the sounds of footsteps passing by him on the trail fades to a trickle.
A lumbering gait descending down the trail catches Gustavo's attention. He turns around, still cloaked behind tree branches, and watches a middle-aged man in a pin-stripe navy business suit shuffling his fancy shoes, stirring up dust, and whipping his head from side-to-side. His thin eyebrows are furled and his mouth is open and distorted. The man, slightly overweight and with a receding hairline, carrying a long and slender tube-like package, shambles off the trail into a nook in the mountainside thirty feet below Gustavo.