A chance meeting

It was another long day in a series of long days. I sat down at one of the few remaining tables in the meeting room of the large Convention center/Hotel.

It was the second time I'd sat down all day. The first was to gulp down a quick breakfast at 5:30 AM.

I surveyed the room as I began packing notebooks and papers into my briefcase. The room was a wreck. Several hours earlier a very impressive event had taken place. Now the room was littered with soiled table covers and chairs. Programs and place cards dotted the carpeted floor. The exhibits had been dismantled and carefully loaded. The stage, with it's lighting and sound system, had also disappeared along with the crews that had handled all the equipment.

I smiled to myself as I realized that once again, I had managed to hire just the right amount of labor coordinated with the proper equipment and timing, to complete the job successfully in the short time available.

The next crew was already in the room cleaning and setting tables and chairs for the next function. As they worked their way toward where I was sitting, I finished stuffing the papers into the briefcase and stood up to leave. I was reminded that I hadn't stopped for a restroom break all day. I headed for the closest one. I worked my way through some back corridors and the kitchen, then crossed through the lounge area.

The lounge was still scattered with several patrons. The band had finished playing and were beginning to pack up their instruments. A narrow passage beside the stage led to the bathroom. Two musicians were off the stage and packing their instrument in this area. I dodged past one, and turned to meet the other face to face. We danced a little jig as we tried to decide which way the other was going.

"Care to dance?" we both joked at the same time.

"Maybe later" I quipped as I made my way past him and entered the restroom.

The restroom was incredibly small. It was obviously added as an afterthought. I could wash my hands, comb my hair, and take a whiz, all at the same time, if I could just find some place to set my briefcase.

When I came out, there was one musician left. She was standing on the stage holding her instrument in a case that gave no clue as to what that instrument might be.

I glanced up and gave her an automatic smile of acknowledgment. It took a second for my brain to register, but her single most feature burned itself there. It was her eyes. They were an amazing intense bright blue like I had never seen before.

Then another second passed before my brain remembered that it had seen eyes like that before. Once before. A long time ago, and I had fallen in love with them.

"Linda?" I asked, stopping and turning around.

Those eyes rose to meet mine. At first they were questioning, then recognition set in. After studying my face for a moment she said "Lee." It wasn’t a question.

"How are you?" I said as I smiled, held out my hand and walked toward her.

"Fine." she said.

She held out her hand and I took it in both of mine and gave it a soft squeeze. In High School we had been a "couple" for the better part of a year. I couldn't remember why we broke up, but I was fairly certain it was something stupid I did or said. Her cool attitude seemed to verify that memory.

"Uh, can I buy you a drink?" Okay, so it wasn't an original line but it was the first thing I thought of.

She hesitated. I was sure whatever reasons she was thinking of would result in a “No.’ but then said, "Sure, why not."

The lounger bar was still open and we picked a table and ordered the drinks. We spoke of things consequential and inconsequential. In the course of the conversation I found out she was married and had two daughters of her own. They were in their early teens. Her redheaded sister, who I always thought was more than a little on the wild side, had died in a car accident while still in High School.

We exchanged photos of our kids. When I looked at her older daughters picture, I could have been looking at her own high school picture. The resemblance was uncanny; the same dishwater blonde hair, the same incredible blue eyes. The younger daughter had a radiant mane of red hair. I couldn't remember what Linda's sister looked like, but I was sure I was looking at a very close resemblance. I couldn't help but wonder what fate awaited the young lady in the picture, but I said nothing.

The conversation wandered for a while, then a thought came to mind and I blurted it out before thinking. "What ever happened to us?"

It was a mistake. She had relaxed considerably since we met by the stage. Now her eyes narrowed and focused on me, "You have to ask that?" she asked coolly.

I hesitated, but realized the trigger had been pulled and the bullet was heading my way, so I stupidly stepped into it's path, "Yes, I do."

She mentioned a girls name I barely remembered and began telling me of all the atrocities I had committed with her.

Now, my memory is not my best attribute, but this is the kind of stuff I would remember. I listened, slack jawed.

I waved my hands in front of me, interrupting her as she got madder and madder.

"I may have flirted with her" I started, "I was always a flirt, always will be, but I never even kissed that girl.

Her face lost the anger that was seething there and went blank as she stared at me and knew I was telling the truth. Under her breath I thought I heard her mumble "My God."

"Then why did you stop calling me?" she asked only slightly more audibly.

"I kept getting the feeling you where lying to me about why you couldn't go out with me. I guess I just gave up."

"I was" she admitted, turning to stare at some unimportant part of the wall.

"I guess I shouldn't have given up so easily" I mumbled.

We sat there for a few minutes in silence as we fumbled with our drinks and our thoughts. The waitress stopped by and announced that the bar was closing.

"Look" I said to Linda " I don't want to leave it like this and I don't know the area well enough to go searching out an all night bar so we can talk. Can we go up to my room?"

She hesitated briefly, and I could tell from her blue eyes that she considered saying no several times before finally answering "Yes."

I grabbed my briefcase and her instrument and we headed for the elevator. It was a slow silent ride. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say or do next.

We arrived at my room. I quickly cleared off some clothes I had thrown on the sofa. I set the baggage next to the sofa and indicating the clean area, I said " Please sit down." It sounded so formal we both let out a small chuckle. I sat on the corner of my bed facing her.

"I didn't get to hear you play" I said nodding towards the instrument case.

"Oh. Well, we'll be playing here every night this week" she said cheerfully.

"I wish I could stay. I had to leave first thing in the morning."

"It's already morning" she reminded me, pointing at the red 2:15 showing on the digital clock by the bed.

"Mmmm. I guess I won't get to hear you play, then"

After a moments hesitation she said, "I guess I could play you a little something now."

"I'd like that." I admitted.

She smiled, reach down and produced a violin from the case.

"What happened to the clarinet?" I asked.

"Oh, I still play that, too. But I use the violin with the group."

I nodded. She thought for a moment, trying to decide what to play as she shuffled though some sheet music. She set the music down and started to play from memory. She played so soft my ears could barely hear, but the notes of that haunting, bittersweet melody hit my heart like a full orchestra. The high notes soared my soul to heaven like winged angels, while the dark somber passages turned all that glory to deepest sorrow.

She began to weep, I noticed that my eyes where wet too. I went over, sat beside her on the couch, put my arm around her, and gave a little hug.

"That was beautiful" I finally whispered.

"I wrote it for my sister" she said.

I struggled with something to say to that, but nothing seemed to be appropriate, so I said nothing. Eventually, the silence between us became louder than words, so I ventured out with the first thought that crossed my mind.

"I didn't realize you were that close. I remember the two of you constantly bickering."

"Well, most of the time we did." she admitted "But her last year in school, after you and I had graduated, she suddenly changed into the most considerate, nicest person you ever met."

As she came out of her melancholy mood and back to reality, she removed her head from my shoulder. Somehow it had come to rest there. As she did, I realized how much I had been enjoying the feeling of warmness that had come over me since she laid her head down. I also realized that if I had just kept my mouth shut, I might still be enjoying that warmness.

I looked into her eyes and wanted to kiss her the same way we used to in High school, but I knew there where too many families involved in this situation, so I just smiled. Damn morals anyway, I thought, but said: "What caused her to change?"

" I really don't know." she said, and apparently realizing the situation could easily get out of hand as those old feelings started up, she moved a little further away.

"I guess she just got tired of being a brat all the time. Of course if she hadn't gotten so nice I never would have let her use my car that night."

The way she said it gave me goose bumps. I stifled a shiver as I realized I was about to hear a story she thought about a lot.

"No ones ever heard that song before" she said, standing up.

"That's a shame." I said absentmindedly "It's a very moving melody."

"Not even my husband or my daughters" she continued as if I had said nothing. She moved across the room, parted the drapes and looked down twenty floors to the empty streets where street lights left greenish round pools of illumination around them.

"I've played it a million times in my mind. Sometimes late at night, I'll sneak to the study and play it on the violin so I can improve certain stanzas."

I thought about how she had played it for me and knew no one could have heard it outside the room.

She came back and sat on the sofa. I glanced back into those beautiful eyes and realized I could think of nothing else to day. We sat in silence until it became a deep well that we couldn’t seem to find our way out of.

She left my room in the wee hours of the morning and went back to her room, and her life without me.

In the morning I caught my plane back to my life without her.