Act II

First day.

I take a train to Phoenix. I arrive at the station, it looks like something out of a vintage magazine, there is a locomotive next to a cherry tree, it gives you an air of a story. Elena was waiting for me on the platform . I see her, my soul smiles, I stiffen, she comes to me and takes me in her arms (ahh how much I missed these arms, ahhh how much I missed this warmth) we stay like that for a few moments.

-Hi!

-Hi!

No words were needed, I read in her eyes everything that was in her soul. She was sad that I might die but tried to look cheerful.

We first go to a hostel to stay, I have never been to a hostel, I wanted a cultural experience, something I had never encountered before in my life. We meet some foreigners, we talk to them in English. Szasz suggests that I meet his younger sister Eliza, who was waiting for us at a nearby cafe. I accept. Her sister was a bit thinner than Elena, she had make-up one her face and a curly hair.

-Hello, I'm Eliza, I've heard a lot about you.

-Hello Eliza, I'm David, I hope the words about me were good..

The three of us sit down at a table, order a fruit juice. Between Eliza and Elena, I would say that Eliza was the most beautiful in the family, but she did not attract me. Elena was nothing special but she was special to me, I felt like I knew her before. Eliza wanted to study in Europe through a scholarship, she had given a few interviews and written a few essays and now she was waiting for the result if she would be chosen or not, she had also taken modeling courses, a girl with much bigger prospects and dreams than you would have imagined she could fit into her frail body.

After we finish our juice, his sister leaves saying that she has something to do (most likely she wants to leave us alone...), she takes me in her arms and tells me that it was nice to meet me and that we will talk again. I was alone again with Szasz, walking through the streets of Phoenix on a sunny day.

-What should we do now Elena?

- I want to get you something and every time you look at that thing I want you to remember me.

-Sounds good.

She knew a Chinese shop that sold various things. We enter the store and look among the things. I see a plush donut with hello kitty print, it came in several colors, I choose the pink one because it's her favorite color and I know how much she likes hello kitty. She takes me a bracelet with a bird on it. She is happy when she sees what I got her, she thanks me the same way and I in turn thank her for the bracelet.

We leave the store and it starts to rain. We run to take shelter from the rain, reaching a corner where the rain could no longer reach us. Diana was starting to get cold, she was only wearing a sweatshirt, I tell her if she wants my jacket but she refuses, I take off the jacket, put it on her shoulders and pull her towards me, our foreheads touch, our eyes close and we sit for some time listening to the rain. The rain stops, apparently it was just a short summer rain.

We get hungry, turn the corner and find a restaurant. I wanted a window seat, but all the window seats were taken, I was satisfied with what I found. The menu was brought to us , I wanted eggs and bacon, but I was thinking that I should lose weight (how does a man behave when he knows that he might die! Actually we all behave like this every day, we ignore the idea of death and pretend that we will live forever ), so I choose a Caesar salad and a lemonade, Elena orders a tiramisu and a fruit juice. She says that no matter what she eats, she can't get fat.

Even though we didn't have window seats we could see the city, actually some buildings and people walking on the street. We begin to discuss our former relationships, it seems that in the past she confessed her love and was rejected (I don't understand how anyone could reject her, it's true, she's a child in a woman's body, or rather she kept her soul innocent, but that would only make you love her more).

Our food comes, I had never had Caesar salad before, it had a strange smell and I couldn't find the salad just the meat, I had chicken, fish, fried bread cut into pieces and a strange sauce. I played with my fork in the salad, at least the lemonade was good. On her plate next to the tiramisu was cocoa, and in the cocoa two fork shapes stood out. We have fun, we say that whoever made that tiramisu was an artist, we come to the conclusion that they used my fork to create those shapes (we laugh, we have fun).

We went out into the sunshine, happy, there were puddles but most of the asphalt was dry. We are walking, at one point Elena jumps past something.

-What happened?

- Two beetles that were fuc… making love in the middle of the sidewalk!

We look at each other and suddenly we start laughing .

We walk and at one point Elena sees a shelf with books and two women, the books were given out for free, they were about God, those women were part of Jehovah's witnesses, she tells me to stop so that she can choose a book for me to read , she goes, says hello, looks through those books and finally reads one, she didn't know what she should say so she just says happy holidays in a clumsy way.

She had taken me a small, white book with the title "Is there a creator who cares about you?". The cover also included a picture from the sky, under the picture was written "The Eagle Nebula (M16)," Pillars of creation, ,

We stop at a cafe. I was very surprised to find that it had books. Cafes that have books are my favourites, they have a special style. I order a cola with vodka and she a juice. While Elena was drinking her juice , I was looking through the books. I had found "Hecate " by Wiliam Bleake, I wanted to read it for a long time.

I also found a book with poems by Donald Trump. Curiously, I had not known until then that Donald Trump had written. I look over some of the poems in that book and find that most of them are dedicated to the women or money. I put Donald's book back and start drinking my drink while I was drinking, Elena and I were looking out the window. I was very sad that I might not be able to read anymore...

We arrive at the hostel, lay down on the bed and fall asleep, after a few hours we wake up and find that it is dark outside and that we are hungry. Most of the shops were closed at that time so we decided to go to a nonstop one. We walk about two kilometers, on our way we meet people who are going to or coming from the club, after eating, we think that we should go too. In the end, we stopped going because there was a bar near our hostel, but not just any bar, but a rockers' bar. Since neither she nor I had ever been to one before, it was the perfect opportunity.

We enter, small room, diffused light and rock music in the background. We sit down at the bar, I ask for a beer and she also has a beer (it seems that they didn't have juice there). We felt a little strange at first, but that would change . I ask for the second dark beer, then a blond one, then a dark one. Even though I had drunk five beers, I didn't feel anything and Elena barely drank half of her beer . I feel that something strong is needed, I ask for two shots of Absolut vodka, then I quench it again with beer. It was good I had started to feel something.

At the bar, Elena was on my left and an old rocker on my right. At one point the old man asks me for a cigarette, thanks me and leaves to smoke. After he smokes, he returns to his place, takes the bottle of beer in his hand, brings it close to mine to collide and thanks me again for the cigarette, he does this gesture again every five minutes about three times (most likely he got bored or even didn't remember that he had done the same thing five minutes before).

A group of young people enter the bar , they order a strange drink, I tell the bartender to give me what he gave them. I drink that shot, it was strong with olive and tabasco sauce . Then I tell the bartender to give me a shot that I've seen in movies that catches fire, that's how he sets fire to the shot, I drew the smoke with a straw and I drank the shot.

I had strengthened myself, Elena still had some of her beer, I look at the bartender's fridge and tell him to give me the blue beer because I never drank it. I opened it and I was very surprised to find that the label said Texax, Elena's hometown, I smile stupidly, I show Elena the bottle and she starts to smile.

In moments like this I feel like talking about philosophy. It was no different now either. I take my beer in my hand and stand up.

- I want to find something absolute, I want to find the absolute truth, an absolute idea, something that if we knew it, we wouldn't need anything (I was saying all this out loud, not so that others could hear me, but rather so that I hear me, Elena looked at me with shining eyes, she always liked to listen to me when I talked about philosophy even if maybe she didn't understand me, she liked to hear me talk, the bartender took out his phone, filmed me, I could see this but this strengthens me, to speak with more passion). I don't like Kant.

I could agree with Descartes, that the last form of knowledge is reason, I could also agree with Hume that the last form of knowledge is the senses. But not with Kant, not with him who combines them. Noway, I am an extremist, it's either white or black, it can't be gray, I can't choose Octavian's golden middle path, middle means mediocrity, it means limitation. Kant is not a revolutionary, by any means, but a mediocre raised to the rank of revolutionary of philosophy, by even more mediocre minds!

I continued the monologue, talking about Karl Popper and critical theory, Nietzsche and the will of power, etc ...

In the end, the bartender tells us that he has to close . We return to the hostel and sleep.