Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Beth: An unfinished story.
I saw the words scrawled in a public bathroom in Haiku, a tiny town on the island of Maui. Many people had added their graffiti to the walls of the bathroom stalls, but this one stood out to me. A woman had drawn a large, somewhat lopsided heart with a black pen. Within the heart were these words:
I love
Zacharias
Gonzales
But he doesn't
deserve it
The words intrigued me for their uniqueness, as far as bathroom graffiti goes. This was no "Laura was here! 2005!" or "Brittany + Tim 4-ever!" The words stung of melancholy. They piqued my curiosity, and I've been wondering ever since. Who is this person, and why did she feel the need to write such a cryptic message on the stall of a bathroom? Who is Zacharias Gonzales, and why does she love him? And most importantly...why doesn't he deserve her love? If he doesn't deserve it - and she knows it enough to admit it publicly - why does she go on loving him?
This strikes me as the exact thing from which novels are born. 
I'll bet that Anne Tyler, had she seen the scribbles, a tiny piece of someone's life, would be able to conjure up a hundred various storylines taken from that one sentence. And no doubt they would all be supremely interesting and strikingly different. I've been idly thinking about the mystery woman for about a week now, but haven't really come up with any so-called "novel" ideas. That's probably why I'm a newspaper reporter instead of a book writer, but it doesn't stop me from speculating and imagining lives for the mysterious person.
Mystery Woman left an unfinished story of her life on a public bathroom stall. I'd love to hear someone else's theories on the story behind her words.
Oh, and if you want Hawaiian inspiration - she was in Hawaii, after all - you can check out a larger sampling of our Maui pictures here, in the "Maui, Hawai'i" folder. Enjoy!
What other people had to say
Mel wrote:
Ooooh, this reminds me of the horrible Oprah's List book I can't even remember the name of about a South American woman who tries to find her love during the Gold Rush in California. Why? Because a Google search of Senor Gonzales' name pops up with this:
One blacksmith, Zacharias GONZALES, had a blacksmith
shop in Indian Gulch, and the first underground(?) fandango hall in Hornitos.
His blacksmithing attracted Joaquin Murrietya as a customer.
The name of the main character's love was Joaquin Murrietya, an outlaw bandit. Perhaps that is why the blacksmith didn't deserve Bathroom Girl's love -- assuming, of course, that she's a time-traveller and fictional...-- because he helped a man rumored to be a murderous no-good criminal...maybe he crafted guns or other metallurgic weaponry, and because of his part in this n'er do well tale, his own life is lost in a pool of blood...and our time-travelling, fictional, no-name senora (let's call her Zelda) decides to live among the natives in Hawaii to escape the love even death cannot take away.....
Hmm. I am intrigued also. I'll think on some other possible story lines... Thanks for sharing, Beth!
mary wrote:
Hey Beth, I believe I have some leads to your mystery
man and possibly to the mystery woman of Maui. Do you
wish to hear the story? If so, write me back. Incidently, can you tell me
which bathroom stall? in which part of Haiku? I need
to see this. I need to feel what you saw, for reasons
you will understand when you hear the real story.
Sincerely! Mary of Maui
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