GAUNTANAMERA coincidence

GAUNTANAMERA coincidence

My girlfriend was watching the Food Network back at her place on Long Island. She was watching Rachael Ray. She calls me in Montreal and asks “Why didn’t you tell me there was a huge open market in Montreal? We’ve been going out for 3 years and you never mentioned an open market! You know I love open markets.” She was speaking of the Jean Talon Market in Montreal. Apparently Rachael Ray was doing a show from Montreal and she was in the Jean Talon Market. So I told Nefta, my girlfriend, I would take her to the market next time she comes up to see me. A week or so later she came up to see me. We made plans to go to the market on Saturday. The night before our trip to the market she was transferring music to her MP3 player from my computer. For some reason I blurted out “Do you have that Spanish song I like?” It was a weird question because she wasn’t listening to Spanish music, it’s just something that popped into my head. She asked “What Spanish song?” I said that I didn’t know the name of it but it went something like this…I started humming it for half a second and immediately she knew the song and said “GUANTANAMERA!” “YES!” I said, “That’s the song! How did you guess it so fast?” For the next few minutes we were singing Guantanamera and dancing around the apartment. She knew the words, I didn’t. So she sang it properly and I just kept repeating “Guantanamera” over and over again. It was funny.

THE VERY NEXT DAY we go to the Jean Talon Market. It was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny. We found a parking a few blocks away and walked to the market. Making stops here and there in some random stores. The market was amazing, it was my first time there too. We walked into a huge fruit and vegetable store, spent a few minutes in there. Then we walked into the “indoor” section of the market. We went into a little shop and bought some spices and a hazel nut spread, looked at several other food places and eventually made our way to the “outdoor” section of the market, the section with all the outdoor terraces and street vendors, and shops and food. As soon as we exit the indoor section and step out into the bright sunny outdoor section Nefta and I stare at each other as we come to the same realization and shock at the same time, both our jaws drop in disbelief. Right there, as soon as we step out into the outdoor section, is a lone street musician, he looked like some kind of Aztec or ancient Indian, and he was playing GUANTANAMERA.

Had we not stepped out at that exact time, if we had spent a couple of minutes more in one of the shops, had we not parked where we were and had to walk, we would have missed him sing THAT song. I took it as a sign from the Gods, and I bought the street musician’s CD.

This particular coincidence is our favorite coincidence.