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"She's gone shopping," said Ross when I passed by his table, "but she'll be back in a minute."
I rushed out to meet her the moment I saw her returning in the crowd.
"May I invite you to one of the finest restaurants in the city?" I asked.
"Shouldn't we rather go back to the hotel first, to change clothes?" she almost stuttered in replying.
"Sure we can. We can take a taxi and stop by, on the way."
"Oh, but the others will be waiting for us at the bus stop."
"No Anton, they won't."
I saw tears come to her eyes when I said this. She dropped her shopping bags and hugged me. Evidently she was aware of the momentous overturning that lay behind those simple words: "No Anton, they won't." All the notions of responsibility, the notion of people as property that limits love, had been dealt with at this point. Now, finally, we had dared to touch the sublime. It seemed as if the entire conference had been building up toward this unfolding capability to step beyond all limits in a flow that reflects the model of the sun.
We took a cab to the hotel and quickly got changed. This was going to be a night for celebrating. We had ample cause for that now. Also, I was quite aware that our being together as freely as we were, reflected in a large measure the work that had gone on at the grass roots level of our little community. Anton agreed.
I soon realized, too, that this wasn't going to be anything like my experience in Leipzig had been. What was unfolding, here, was quickly becoming bigger and richer. In this context we selected a different restaurant than I had had in mind. The one that we selected wasn't as much renowned for the quality of its food, than it was renowned for the quality of its music for dancing. An event like ours had to include dancing. It was build on a great deal of dancing in the mental realm.
We took a cab to get there. This meant that we arrived early. The music was live, from a rich Latin tradition, nor did it matter that neither of us understood a word of the songs. We seemed to understand the feelings that the words conveyed by their tone, by their melody, and by the expression of the singers. Soon, the entire place was sold out to the last table. Still, the noise of the conversations didn't suppress the music, or the intimacy that we felt. Actually the crowd made our being there, more precious. Our little table was right in the middle of it all. The sea of people surrounding us created a unique sense of privacy in our own 'little' but wide-open sphere.
We ate, drank, talked, and smiled at one-another, as though this was the first day of our love. I reached out my hand to her across the table, as I would have loved to do in Moscow, but hadn't dared. Now, our situation literally demanded it. What had happened appeared like a miracle. It wouldn't have been possible even a week ago. The basis for it didn't exist, then.
"We must understand this to be a most special celebration," I said to Anton, "the kind of which may have never been possible in all the history of humanity. We have made a scientific breakthrough that led to the removal of an ironclad barrier that may have never been removed on this type of platform since civilization began. We may have won a price that no one has won before."
When I spoke these wards, I didn't know how far off the mark I was. I didn't understand the full scope of what this miracle was all about.
"Love isn't an Olympic competition," said Anton after thinking about what I said. "Love is not a competition in which only one person can win. That would be vertical love, which is not really love at all."
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