PART THREE: ADULT HOOD
Do you believe in miracles? I wouldn’t too if I were you but let me tell you a story. You see, I’m not a misguided soul. I don’t fall too easily for these modern day trickeries or give in to superstition but when something is so evident that it smacks you in the face, it’s just too hard to turn the other way. I guess I wouldn’t really call it a miracle but more or less something of extraordinary fate.
It was a lonely autumn when the remnants of my last girlfriend loomed in my thoughts. It had been about a year but I was still in that pain that comes after a break up. My life had become a routine. Wake up at 7:45, head off to work at 8:30, arrive at the office by 9:00, leave the office at 7:00, come home by 8:00, eat dinner, smoke some pot and be in bed by 11:30. The same thing the next day and the following and the one after that until the weekend arrives. And then it was time for extracurricular debauchery. Indulge in a few types of drugs and the weekend would go just as fast as it came. I needed a change, some type of a happening to happen to make my life new. That’s what I’ve been wanting. Something new to bless my life, my life that was now plagued by empty happys and momentary bliss. (if you would call it that)
When I took the train some mornings, I would notice this girl. Oh, yes, this is a story about love. Not a love story but a story about two lives coming together for some kind of rare purpose. So yes, this girl caught my eye. Not because she was the most amazing piece of human I’ve seen but maybe because she just struck me and the more I saw her, the more interesting she became. I would wake up a little earlier now to prep just a bit more in the mornings, to look just a bit extra nice. I would wait for this girl in the station and if she hadn’t come by the time my train came, I would feel incomplete for the rest of the day. I would hope to just get a glimpse of her, just a single glimpse it would take to make my day all the more enjoyable. I would come home and rant about her with my roommate and she would eventually become my “subway girl.” My fantasy girl who I saw only in the mornings at my subway station, I knew nothing else.
And it just stopped. She was nowhere to be found in the mornings anymore. I would try leaving a little early and other days I would leave a little late but no luck for this poor soul. God gives and God can surely take away I thought.
It was a late night I had at work, a rarity at this time of the year when things were so slow. Coming home I have to transfer trains, just like in the morning but at night, the train takes forever to come and so sometimes, you have to wait forever. I dragged myself down the stairs onto the platform when I saw an old acquaintance from my college years.
She hadn’t changed a bit but that is beside the point. The girl sitting right beside her was the one I was interested in. I didn’t know what to say. My words just froze as it made its way through my lips. I was actually more shocked to see her, yes it was my “subway girl.”
SUBWAY GIRL: (This is the information I would later find out)
Fact 1- loves Wong Kar Wai films. I was actually indulging myself with films by Wong Kar Wai around this time.
Fact 2- lived in the same apartment building. She actually lived three floors below me.
Fact 3- (not so much as fact but…) she was nothing like I imagined. In that cliché way, she was something more. (that’s the only way I can say it)
So you would think, yeah, he met the girl he was in love with and again, the story of love is taken way out of proportion and exaggerated as much as the stories found in the bible. Not true. I like to think of myself as a the type of person who lets things happen. To a certain extent, I don’t even try. I believe the perfect love is something that falls right into place. And so I was still in a crazy dilemma. I’ve now been formally introduced to this person but how was I suppose to get closer? See, meeting the person is easy. Hi my name is __________. It’s the way you approach her again and again that’s important.
A week went by and I had created every possible conversation in my head in the chance of another encounter with this “subway girl.” To my bitter disappointed, another week had gone by and I wasn’t able to use a single one.
It was 9 in the evening and I had just finished work. It was miserable taking the train back to Brooklyn at such a late night in the evening during a weekday but “I might as well make the best of it” I told myself. I sat down at a bench and dreamed up another scenario with this “subway girl.” I think I actually held my hands together and prayed that she appeared tonight. The train came and I walked in as usual, leaned on the door on the other side of the train and closed my eyes for a few seconds. I looked up and saw her stumbling in. HER = SUBWAY GIRL.
We talked about the building that we lived in. Why she was here in NewYork and by the time we knew it, we were at our stop. We walked to our apartments and eventually went our separate ways.
More time passed and I hadn't seen this person for awhile.
I would linger outside my building, smoking a cigarette hoping to see her. No luck. I had become desperate one time and went to hang out at the grocery store, hoping she was hungry that night and needed to buy some food or drinks. The moment I walked into the store, I noticed her in line to buy her things. I didn't want to tap her on her shoulders and if I had gone to the back I was sure to miss her when she left. I stood right in front of the door pretending to examine some soft drinks. She eventually saw me and we made light conversation.
I went to have a drink with my friend that night to tell him about the incidents that had occurred. While in the midst of our drinks, she had called. She wanted me to help her on a project she was working on. Okay so I won't bore you with more incidents on how we met and such and such. Her, her roommate and I were to watch a movie together when her roommate bailed on us, leaving us by ourselves. She intentionally did this because she knew how much I liked her roommate. We watched an old wong kar wai film that was playing at an art theater. We had dinner and spent the whole night, skipping around to various cafes and such to talk about our lives. The next morning I had woken up and found myself on my chair with the girl on my bed. We looked at each other and then I knew, I had found the one.
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