by LJ Frank

She: The thunder woke me up. It was raining. My partner was sleeping. I slipped out of bed, walked into the living room, opened the patio door, and smelled the fragrance of wet soil and watched the drops of water dripping from the flowers I planted. And I  thought of you.

Me: It rained last night. In fact, it rained the day before each brief encounter. Meaning in life at times is hard to come by. Occasionally life has similar threads in the same cloth that are woven together by accident. It was like we were two characters that were caught in one reality yet seeing another that was a glimpse in which we may have had roles opposite each other and, what might have been.

She: We were from two different places in the city who crossed paths by chance. And chance can change us. It can change meaning and our life.  It’s the difference between The Road Taken and the Road Not Taken. And what would happen if those Roads became one, even if for a few scattered minutes here and there.

Me: I can still see and feel your presence…you intoxicated my senses as we brushed against each other in the art museum. Our bodies touched by accident. It felt ambiguous and yet I was mesmerized by the sensation. Why? You look so familiar and yet…

She: I was immediately attracted to your eyes and longish hair. I felt you brush up against me and strangely did not suddenly move back, “sorry”… but it felt like it was a touch that I had been missing. You reminded me of my dreams of an artistic soul.  You possessed an idealist look in your deep-set eyes…a quixotic and a romantic notion seeped into my mind of what might be…but then I moved on.

Me: You drove passed me in the parking lot…we smiled at each other in the brevity of a few seconds, as if knowing each other that transcended those seconds.  

She: I liked your face. You looked back at me as you entered the subway an hour later. There was something about you that was so tantalizing as if we belonged together.

Me: And as chance would have it, our eyes met again. There was something there. What was it? Were we lovers in a past life? Imagination can get the better of me.

She: I know. And then we crossed paths again at a coffee shop and while I was leaving you were entering.

Me: But you stopped and looked back in my direction as if wanting to say something.

She: Your lips moved, and I wondered what you were wanting to say.

Me: A smile spread across your face as if we had already revealed our inner most wants and desires. It was an unspoken intimacy. And then you walked to your car, opened the door, slipped into the driver’s seat rolled down your window and I caught a glimpse of your hair blowing across your face as you drove away.

She: My eyes photographed you so I could recall you whenever I wished.

Me: A month later I stopped by the same coffee shop. And you were with someone, but you looked in my direction as I walked in and smiled at me and then bit your lower lip.

She: I so wished we had spoken to each other that day…if we only had but acted upon our impulse.

Me: And what might have been.

She: And that was the last I saw you until over fifteen years later. I was at an airport, and we were both leaving the terminal exiting from different airlines. Getting into separate taxis with different people when we both looked up at the same time.

Me: I looked into your eyes, and you gazed into my soul. I wanted to physically embrace you and listen to the sound of your voice.

She: I so wanted to hug you and hear you whisper in my ear. Thinking about what might have been if I had ever taken the time to approach you. Why didn’t I?

Me: I don’t even know your name…only a woman who entered my life and changed me on how I might take the first step. And that look as you departed from view in the back seat of your taxi overwhelmed my senses.

She: As my taxi drove away, I looked back at you and though we never spoke, nor do I know your name, I will always remember you and what might have been. Please know there’s an empty place in my heart for you.

Me: As my taxi pulled onto the interstate I somehow knew I would never see you again…but I will always remember you.