She was sitting on a beach bench. She was in her twenties, disheveled, with her hair dyed in various colors, singing and playing the guitar. She had a round voice and she was very well tuned. I recognized the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan's song Blowin in the Wind.
I stopped to listen to it and, little by little, the people, who were walking along the avenue, stopped to listen to it, until they made a big run around it. At the end many of those present applauded and placed many coins and notes on the straw hat in front of her. She smiled and thanked, with a slight gesture of her head, for the applause and the gratuities.
Then he continued with a song that I didn't recognize at first, but then I acknowledged the song. It was Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven.
This song that the singer dedicated to his son who died at the age of four in an unfortunate accident. I was surprised by the change of voice register, different from the round and sensual voice, now it was a hoarse and torn voice. I went over and checked that she was crying. I noticed that some of the walkers were also crying, as if they were contagious with a mystical atmosphere that the singer had created. At the end of the song, the audience started with brave applause and lots of applause and most of them rushed to deposit money in the singer's hat. She returned them with a smile. She picked up the guitar, embraced it and said a few words that I didn't understand. Then she put it in a blue case, collected the winnings and put them in a small blue cloth bag. She got up, took all her belongings, went down to the beach and took a bath.
I went on my way to a meeting I had in the middle of the morning. Late in the afternoon, while taking a walk around the city, I found her leaving a supermarket with her guitar, her backpack hanging on her back and a bag full of sandwiches wrapped in paper. I followed her from a safe distance, until we arrived at a parking area, in which there were about thirty homeless people taking refuge under its ledge. I watched her greet and deliver the sandwiches to each of the people until she was left without any.
Then she walked towards the beach, sat on a bench by the avenue and began to play her guitar and sing. This time she sang Bob Marley's Redemption song and I was amazed; the best version I had ever heard.
When I finished I went over and left fifty euros in his straw hat. Our eyes met and she smiled at me. I walked away as she started singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz movie.
