The Love from the Other Threshold.

I spoke with a man who knows about the afterlife a few weeks ago in Havana, and he told me that there are beings who, when they die, don't leave. When the door through which our energy is supposed to depart opens, some refuse to take the step because they can't let go of material things or still can't believe they've died. And they stay. They stay here, wandering.

Others not only can't believe they've died, but they don't even know they're dead. According to the gentleman familiar with the energies from the other world, these specific individuals stay among us as if nothing happened, living our lives, the lives of the living.

The souls that stay here, thinking they're still alive, walk the streets, go to supermarkets, gamble in casinos, take taxis or buses, go to offices, and continue their social lives. But the most messed up part is that, by staying in this dimension with the belief that they're alive, these spirits can "meet" another mortal they like—just as any of us would—fall in love, seduce them, and attach themselves, as if they were their partner.

And that explains why people in this world with everything to be happy in love experience continuous failure. Because a dead person has attached to their lives and won't let them breathe.

It became clear to myself. The cosmic guy's theory made sense and explained to me why those friends who seem to have it all for happiness in love keep facing failures. Because their love belongs to the dead. I mean, they've already married a dead person. And the dead, even though they're dead, love, get jealous, and won't let that person go for anything in the world, just like you do with your partner whom you adore.

I think about what happens when night falls for successful and beautiful but lonely mortals. When these real-world people arrive home alone. Closing the door, the forsaken mortals suffer, even thinking they're not worthy of anyone. They feel cursed. As if they were victims of some spell preventing them from finding someone to love. They don't know (but you do) that someone is already loving them, watching over them. Even that spirit accompanying and yearning for them might make love to them at night.

How the hell can a dead person who is jealous of a living person make love to them? I asked the gentleman from the other side of life about that. He responded that obviously, the dead person doesn't physically make love to a living person, but the pleasure they feel when they "make love" with the one they're in love with is the same as you, dear reader, might feel when hugging your child or going to sleep tired, or receiving praise from your boss, or scoring a goal. It's a happy feeling within the soul.

I pondered on that and inevitably remembered a friend of mine (alive!). A physically marvelous woman, brilliant, friendly, with a captivating smile, cultured and intelligent, who, at 42, is alone, single, and watching life going by, surrounded by a successful job that overshadows her old dream of finding her prince, her counterpart, to build a beautiful family.

But my friend hasn't been able to find anyone, perhaps because, in her case, there's also a dead person who fell in love with her a long time ago and ensures she stays away from potential suitors. And I suppose that now, that damned dead person is happy because they've seen how my friend's desire to find a prince charming weakens over time. I suppose her dead lover accompanies her to work, encourages her when her boss scolds her, and wraps his arm around her forty-something waist when she goes out to eat at a restaurant. I suppose he lays beside her in the midst of caresses and wakes her up with a kiss at dawn, then showers with her.

I hope my friend realizes what I'm writing and knows it's about her. I hope the explanation worthy of an Oshún's mime* makes her understand she's not alone. I don't know if it will help her resign or, at least, have the illusion of living a happy, albeit multidimensional, idyll. Maybe one of these nights, she can invite me for a drink, and if she feels daring, tell me how she does it with her invisible husband.

......

* Oshún: Yoruba Goddess of Love and Freshwater.