(texto continúa en Facebook de @lilianvazquiz ) _Aeropuerto Charles de Gaulle. On my way back to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s 5:30 p.m., and the afternoon sinks into that weary rhythm of long journeys. I’m caught in the endless customs line, a serpent coiling in slow motion, as if time inside that space had a different density. I can’t help but glance at the other line—the priority passengers. They move forward without stopping, without hesitation, as if the world itself made room for them. Lucky them, I think, with a quiet mix of resignation and humor. And then it happens. A girl passes right in front of me. Slim. Dark sunglasses. Cap. Ponytail. She moves with a kind of effortless invisibility, without asking permission, without pausing. And something inside me flickers. “She looks so much like the queen…” I tell myself. Or maybe I’m starting to hallucinate. No. It can’t be. She’s in Bélgica. The line pretends to move forward. I remain suspended in that doubt that refuses to become certainty. Later, once I’m free, I walk into the duty-free shop before heading to my gate. And then, as if fate had a sense of humor, I see her again. This time, there is no doubt. It’s her. The one and only Imane Khelif. She’s alone. Unhurried. Looking for her favorite fragrance. Like any girl drifting among scents, testing, choosing, inhabiting that small, perfect moment where nothing is demanded of her. There is no ring. No noise. No judgment. Just a woman choosing a perfume. And me… I pass through every possible emotional state. I move closer. I hesitate. I shouldn’t interrupt. Should I take a picture? No, that’s not right. I literally pinch myself to make sure I’m awake. She goes to pay. I don’t react. She passes in front of me for the second time. Time becomes liquid. I take out my phone. I open the translator. I type as best as I can—my English is clumsy, shy. When I lift my head, she’s gone. The world returns to normal… except it doesn’t. I see her in the distance. She’s leaving. So I call out, almost without a voice: “Iman.” She turns. “Yes.” That “yes” is real. Human. Close. And there’s no turning back. I walk up to her, mumble a greeting, and show her what I wrote. And then something happens that I didn’t expect, something you can’t rehearse or learn. She smiles. But it’s not just any smile. It’s the kind that disarms, that opens the air, that makes every defense fall away. In that instant, I understand her magic. It’s not in the punches. Not in the strength. It’s in that light. In that way of smiling as if the world were still a kind place. I couldn’t see her eyes. I couldn’t get past the barrier of her smile. I tell her I came for her fight, that I traveled to see her. She writes on her translator, in Spanish: “If you came, you came to see me.” And she smiles again. I show her my “ring” bracelet, the one I still can’t take off, the one I carry like a small, beloved souvenir. I tell her I went to see Elsa. She listens, patient, as if time didn’t belong to her. She is even more beautiful in person. No makeup. No artifice. No armor. I ask for a photo. She agrees. Another fan takes it. I jokingly ask her to make a duck face. She bursts into laughter—pure, unfiltered, without pose or calculation. I don’t know what language we’re speaking. French, English, Arabic… it doesn’t matter. I understand her. She understands me. There is something deeper than language when emotion is honest. I ask her about the Argentina jersey. She replies that she received it. I tell her Argentina will beat Algeria in the match in the U.S. She smiles with that expression of someone who knows that any fight—whatever it may be—is never easy. And in the middle of it all, something weighs on me. I think about how people judge her. How they reduce her. How they name her from ignorance. And maybe, someday, in another improbable crossing of the world, I’ll finally see her eyes. Salud. @Imanegoat Imane Khelif #ImaneKhelif #imane_khelif_10 #ImanKhelif @imanekhelif10 - @lilianvaz53