One of us cannot be wrong

I am dreaming a lot, almost every night and last night I met Leonard Cohen at a
square in Antibes, the small French town just outside of Nice, he was very kind
and he remembered the book I’d sent him and of course we were in a way
neighbours on the small island in Greece & he invited me up to the flat he was
living in, and just outside the door to the steep steps up to the flat we met my
old friend Åke, we couldn’t believe it, what a coincidence and he’s just as big a
Leonard Cohen fan and he was stunned when he was invited to come up with
us to the flat & soon Åke started to loosen up and when Leonard was trying to
tell us something Åke interrupted him and started to tell old jokes and stories,
Leonard was such a polite and friendly soul and he let him talk and smiled but
in the end he took down his old guitar from the wall, the guitar that looked like
the one from the cover of Songs From a Room, it was hanging there on the
wall in his Hydra house with Marianne sitting over by the window & this room
in Antibes looked much the same, all white and Leonard started to strum his
guitar and even Åke got silent and suddenly Leonard started to sing and I
thought what a fantastic moment this was and how I was sitting just close to
Leonard and he was singing The Stranger Song with his characteristic rolling
fingerpicking and then suddenly Åke started to sing along in a very loud and
almost drunken-like voice and from there on my dream just went on and I
couldn’t really remember how it all ended, if it ever did, maybe they are still
singing there in the room overlooking the quiet Place d’Antibe.

Published in Prathamata, Kolkata India (2011)