Proposals and Propositions

Life changing events that have the potential to totally upend a person’s life normally never arrive announced. So, seismic occurrences like traffic accidents or lottery wins are always complete surprises.

For Lisa it started as a regular Monday of the last week of the tax year in her accountancy office. In other words, it was a time of frenzied activity; chaotic shuffling of files; shouting at secretaries, support staff and messengers; and of running in circles between taking sips of cold coffees over empty pizza boxes.

At about 3.15 pm that day Lisa stopped for lunch and to check her messages when she was surprised to find an unexpected email from someone she had not heard from for years. To be more precise, she had not heard from Ky for over a decade, not since the two of them graduated in what seemed a lifetime ago.

If asked, Lisa would have said that Ky could in no way be considered as anything but an acquaintance. He was not what she would classify as a “friend,” or be thought of as anything else. To be considered as a friend she would have had to have held at least one full conversation with him. In truth, she only had short interchanges with Ky over the years of their degree course.

The reason Lisa got to know Ky in the first place was because, by coincidence, Lisa and Ky made mostly the same course choices during their degree. Also, because of their surnames, they were fated by the alphabet to consistently end up with the same seat allocations next to each other.

So, every time Lisa went to class, she would be seated next to Ky, and as per her habit she would try and strike up a conversation with the brainy but quiet boy who was sat next to her in every class they ended up taking.

In the years the two of them were forced by circumstances to be in proximity with one another, Lisa had persevered with her attempts to get to know the guy she had to sit next to in what seemed at times to be a herculean effort.

The reason why Lisa never gave up in her attempts to coax a conversation out of Ky had to do with Lisa’s upbringing in a family where any non communication was a sure sign of unresolved conflict, and since Lisa hated conflicts (or even hints of discord) she was unable to sit in silence, regardless of the unwillingness of anyone else to engage in communication with her.

It was something in her DNA that drove her onwards in her quest to get Ky to talk to her and regardless of his stony response she ploughed on.

Ky on the other hand was as easy as the Mona Lisa to talk to. Someone said he was obviously autistic, but no one knew for sure if he was. However, everyone could agree on one thing about Ky, he was brilliant and the grades he got in every course he took reflected that fact.

After graduation, Ky and Lisa went their separate ways and later Lisa became an accountant, moved to another town, and over time she forgot all about the strange reclusive boy she had sat next to.

However, then the surprise invitation arrived in her inbox and Lisa was filled with an irresistible curiosity about what had become of Ky, how he found her, and most of all, why he wanted to see her so badly after all this time.

So, that evening, at the appointed time Lisa arrived at La Rendezvous (the most expensive restaurant in town) and was shown by an impeccably dressed waiter to Ky’s table in the center of the restaurant.

Lisa spotted and recognized Ky long before she got to the table. From across the room, Lisa could see his signature mop of long black hair and large glasses perched on the edge of his nose. She instantly recognized Ky despite the years of separation.

Ky’s appearance was slightly varied with age but in other ways unchanged. He was always dressed in a manner appropriate to the environment he was in, but somehow, he without fail always looked out of place. Lisa decided long ago that it was not what he wore, but it was the way he acted whenever she saw him in any social environment that made him stick out like a sore thumb.

He had a habit of speaking quickly, and always spoke directly to the point without pausing to cover socially accepted conventions that he obviously felt superfluous such as “hello” or “how are you?” She noticed that he also never looked at people he was conversing with in the eye. Consistently Ky would transfix his eyes when talking, on the ground or in his hands or on anything other than the person to whom he was speaking. He was doing that same thing now as he greeted Lisa, his eyes were transfixed on the tablecloth, even when he said to Lisa that he was so glad she accepted his invitation to dinner, he refused to look at her.

Lisa was thinking to herself that this was the Ky she knew when she was suddenly jolted by Ky’s question, “Lisa will you marry me?”

Lisa’s first reaction was that she had misheard so she asked if he had just proposed to her, and he responded by explaining it was “proposition” rather than a proposal.

Then before the shock wore off fully, Ky explained his choice of word as if he was in a classroom, “in my family when a marriage is arranged we put forward a proposition because it involves a merger of the rights and assets of two clans…far too serious and complicated to be just referred to as a “proposal”.

Lisa inwardly laughed to herself because if Ky was looking at a “merger” with her, there was only on offer an undying student loan and monthly credit card payments. She was still trying to digest what Ky had said when he went on.

“As I said, I asked you here tonight to ask if you would agree to marry me,” Ky said looking at the table between them, “I think it would work out well for both of us that’s why I’m making a proposition.”

“Ky…I don’t know what to say…shouldn’t we get to know each other first before you make such a proposal…I mean “proposition”?”

Although he never looked up at her, Lisa could see Ky had an expression of slight puzzlement on his face, “but Lisa, we do know each other. We’ve known each other for over a decade.”

Lisa could see from what his response was that even at this early stage of their conversation they were having problems communicating.

“Ky people don’t propose marriage like that! This is not some sort of “proposition” as you said, like the sale of a house or some sort of business deal.”

“That might be true for other people, but to my family this is exactly how we arrange marriage unions. We start by making a marriage proposition”.

“You cannot be serious about that. Nobody behaves like that…it’s so…so…eighteenth century!”

“My family does,” Ky answered in a flat tone, “as a matter of fact, it has been done like that in my family since the seventeenth century.”

“And what family would that be Ky? The royal household of Buckingham palace or something?”

“The Winthrop-Alexander family,” was Ky short reply.

Lisa paused and was at a loss as to how to respond apart from asking, “you are a member of that family?”

Ky responded still not looking at Lisa, “you know me as Ky Bland, but my full name is actually Harold Kyle Bland Winthrop-Alexander IV.”

“But how come your name on the class list was always Ky Bland?”

“I didn’t want anyone to know my real name, so I asked the university administration to not use my full name on the class list. When your family donated Winthrop Hall, as well as the Alexander Law Library, they tend to be keen on cooperating with whatever you want.”

Lisa was stunned by the parade of revelations she encountered at this ‘dinner’ where what was on the menu was turning out to be the last thing on her mind.

“Anyway, romantic love is a myth. Arranged marriages have been around for longer than Hollywood notions of love and the emotional highs and lows of novels,” Ky paused then added, “families like mine have made arrangements for marriages since before medieval times and women had not only survived but thrived and lived long, contented and happy lives under this way of courtship.”

“And where did you get this piece of priceless wisdom?” Asked Lisa with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“From my mother,” replied Ky, and then he added after a pause, “…and my grandmother agreed with her when she mentioned this during our family conference.”

“You discussed your proposal…. proposition to me during a family conference?!”

“Of course I did,” Ky said with mild surprise in his voice, “after all our marriage would not be in line with family practice owing to the fact that you don’t bring any of the usual three “P’s” into the deal, and also your family the balance sheet is not very impressive. But I managed to sway my family and our lawyers because you are a qualified accountant, and you had potential…despite your lack of assets and debts.”

Lisa’s mind was numb as the intake of the latest revelations threatened to overload her already overloaded mind. She should have been furious, but the shock and awe worked better on her than anything that an anesthesiologist could administer. However, despite everything the Lisa’s natural built-in curiosity kicked in and she asked, “what are the three “P’s”?”

“Property, position and political advantage of course.”

“Oh…of course…silly of me not to know”, Lisa said meekly convinced that any irony would be lost in the obviously vast ether between the two of them.

Then after a few seconds, she mustered one last question, “why Ky why do you want to marry me?”

“Because from the beginning you reached out and tried to be nice to me. No one else did. And all through our classes over the years, no other person tried like you to be…nice…”

“So, when did you first decide you wanted to make this proposition of marriage?” Lisa asked, “after all I’ve not seen you for years…why now?”

At this point, Ky looked up from the table and for the first time he looked directly into Lisa’s eyes and said, “I decided at 9.06 am fifteen years, four months, twenty-one days ago that I wanted to make this proposition to you.”

Lisa after a quick calculation said in a quite voice, “so that was the day we first met at economics 101?”

Ky averted his eyes from her and went back to looking down at the tablecloth. Lisa’s date just responded by nodding his head in response to her conclusion.

At that point Lisa stood up and said to Ky, “hey look I can’t stay here…I have to go.” She then walked out of the dining area, through the restaurant reception and front door to the street beyond.

Ky just sat impassive as she did all this, saying and doing nothing to try and impede her in any way.

When Lisa reached the cold dark street outside of the restaurant, she spent a few minutes looking at the street full of people going abouts their business on an ordinary Monday night.

She realized in the cold night air that she had just gotten a glimpse of the world she always thought she knew from the other side of the universe.

A doorman from behind her asked, “I’ll hail you a taxi miss, where would you like to go?”

Lisa recovered from her deep contemplation and answered “nowhere” before she re-entered the restaurant.