Waiting For "You"

My Heart felt the pull of "you" long before I met you. It was as though we were always meant to meet. But with life and other distractions constantly throwing us off course, we always seemed to end up further and further away from each other. So far in fact, that we lived in opposite parts of the world!

I would dream of you night after night, always in the same setting where we would be seated in a French styled cafe Crème De Le Cocoa, Located in the northeast of Florida. You would order the sweet treat "Southern Belle”, a rich gooey pecan pie on a shortbread crust with a vanilla bean mousse. I would always ask for the dark chocolate truffle cheesecake. We would be the only ones in the cafe apart from the serving staff.

I knew I couldn’t talk to my friends about you. They would all think I had gone stark raving mad! I did often wonder that myself! But my dreams of you were always so vivid, so real. Perhaps I had seen you in passing and somehow I remembered your face. All I know is that you are not only imprinted in my mind, but also in the depths of my heart- my love.

Monday September 11^th 2022 was just another working day like any other. But something changed within a microsecond of a moment. My alarm clock had failed to awaken me with its high pitched beep! My body clock seemed to be confused as well! It was the eerie silence that awoke me from my slumber. It was so quiet that I felt almost deafened by the lack of the usual morning sounds I had become accustomed to.

I managed to half step, half tumble out of bed at the realisation that I was going to be incredibly late for my mandatory presentation for work today! I had already been given an extension after pleading with my team leader for more time.

“Oh just fricken marvellous! Straight to voicemail!”

After leaving a message on Susan Prentices voice bank, I headed to the kitchen for a strong coffee and a freshly toasted bagel. Part of my morning ritual to get me kick started for a day at the office. My mind was racing with thoughts on how I was going to explain away my reason for not showing up on time! “Sorry, I slept in” was just not going to cut it!

My stress levels continued to climb when my normally reliable Ford Explorer SUV, refused to start! After checking under the hood to see if any leads or sparkplugs were causing the issue at hand, I decided to call for roadside assistance.

“Can this day get any worse?” I spoke out loud to myself as I once again found myself talking to an answer machine. All I could do was wait for Road side assist to call me back to confirm they would be on their way. So I headed back inside and poured myself another coffee as I contemplated what Susan’s response to my “no show” would be.

I was not usually a spur of the moment type of gal. But something pushed me to follow my heart if you will. My dreams had been filled with you almost every single night. My mysterious lover, whom I had never met. It was the words you spoke to me that really helped me to make my decision to travel across the world to a place I had never been, in the hope that I would find you. “Take a chance on me”.

The line of people waiting to board the Boeing 777 bound for Los Angeles was long. Slowly we all made our way to our allocated seats, stowing any hand luggage in the overhead lockers as instructed. Well this was it! There was no going back now! I hope and pray that you are waiting for me..My love.

An hour had passed since I had made the phone call to roadside assist. I guess their five star rating for a quick response to outcalls would no longer apply! I was absolutely fuming! Of course I shouldn’t have called back while I was still in an angry frame of mind, telling them to go fuck themselves! But given the shit start to my day already, I felt it was justified. And don’t get me started on that stuck-up bitch Susan! She calls herself a professional! She couldn’t even be arsed to call me back…

I arrived at the Los Angeles International airport after flying 16 hours, and travelling 12,047 km from Sydney international, non-stop. All I wanted to do was find a hotel and crash for a night or two. But I was on a mission that suddenly felt more urgent for reasons I could not explain. It was just a feeling I had. Call it intuition if you like. Whatever it was, it was screaming at me from the moment I stepped of the plane heading through the arrivals gate!

I was done! With no sign of roadside or a response from Susan, I just couldn’t take another moment just sitting doing nothing! I needed to get the fuck outta here! I had passed that point of giving two fucks about my job or my car. It was at that moment I remembered my neighbour Jim Maccabee had given me the keys to his 59 Chevy Impala for safe keeping while he was away visiting his older sister Faye in Massachusetts. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me taking the ole girl for a spin. You know, just to keep the motor from seizing.

Monday 11^th September 2022. My hire car was all fuelled up and ready to go wherever I chose to. My body was telling me that I should get some sleep after my long flight. My head was telling me to “Go now!” Of course I listened to my head. That urgent feeling wasn’t going away anytime soon! And according to the GPS instructions, I only had to travel for 37 hours to reach my destination. I better get a head start then!

“I knew I loved you before I met you, I think I dreamed you into life. I knew I loved you before I met you, I have been waiting all my life!” I found myself singing as I headed out of Virginia heading towards Florida. I figured it would take me a good 12 hours give or take, to reach my destination. My heart skipped a beat just thinking about the possibility that you would be there waiting for me. Never in my life had I done something so crazy! I had decided from the moment I got into my neighbour’s car that life was too short to let an opportunity like this pass me by. And besides, I really needed to change how my life was headed after today!

“Get your motor runnin’! Head out on the highway! Lookin’ for adventure and whatever comes our way! Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen...”

Just as I was really getting into the mood of the song “Born to be wild”, the hire car started jerking and making splattering sounds before coming to a complete stop. Thankfully I had managed to pull over to the side of the road without causing an accident. It was in that moment that I noticed how quiet everything seemed. Not another car could be seen for miles. I had been travelling for just over 6 hours, only stopping for gas and food. Since then I had been driving on automatic pilot. Not really seeing anything or anyone but the road ahead. The sun was particularly bright today, causing me to shield my eyes from the glare. I prayed that the transponder chip in the car key would send out an SOS to the car hire company sending the cavalry to my rescue and soon! I didn’t like how deserted and eerily quiet this stretch of the road had become!

Something really weird was going on! I had been driving for several hours now and I could swear that I kept on passing the same old roadside diner over and over! I mean, how many places called “Ma’s Diner” could there be? And another thing I had noticed was the lack of people out and about. Several cars, trucks ˚motorcycles could be seen parked at the Diner and along the roadside. So I decided to stop for a bite because my stomach had been growling for the past half hour or so. And of course, I wanted to check out if there was anybody out there…

My phone was fully charged yet I couldn’t get a damn signal! It had been several hours since the hire car’s engine had conked out. According to Midway Car rental’s policy they would try to get to you within 40 minutes after they receive notification from the transponder chip that the car had broken down. I was not feeling all that confident they would be arriving anytime soon! I desperately needed to pee and I was starting to feel the gnawing pangs of hunger return with a vengeance!

I managed to park under the shade of a magnificent white oak Pine. The temperature had soared to a toasty 110˚F, hotter than usual for this time of year. The smell of bacon wafted towards me as I approached the entry door of Ma’s Diner. That was certainly a positive sign that people were still around. The Diner’s window’s had been tinted probably to keep out the heat and glare of the sun, making it hard to see if anyone was seated at the tables inside. Upon opening the door, I was immediately hit with a wave of energies I could only describe as like being pushed back by strong gust of wind. The fact that I still had hold of the door handle, prevented me from falling back outside onto the bare and dusty ground. Part of me wanted to hightail it outta there! But my curiosity got the better of me. I needed to push on through whatever force was trying to prevent me from stepping forward.

Not wanting to be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of “nowhere’sville” I had decided to search for somewhere I could call for help. All of my attempts to read the map located in the glove compartment of the hire car, had failed. What can I say? I preferred the wonders of modern technology to point me in the right direction. Although having said that, it really didn’t help that I couldn’t get an internet connection! It was the scent of bacon that would quite literally save my bacon! So Off I went like a blood hound catching the scent of blood at crime scene, following my nose to wherever it would take me to.

The sizzling sound of meat on the grill pricked at my ears. Turning towards the - styled double doors that lead into the small kitchen out the back of the diner, I finally managed to walk through the invisible force field that had appeared from nowhere. I glanced around the dining area for any other signs of life. What I saw made me stop in my tracks, mouth agape, eyes wide open! 

My legs felt like they were laden down with lead as I continued to follow the tantalising scent of greasy food filling my senses. Bottled water just wasn’t filling the now prominent hole in my grumbling stomach! I felt a hunger building up inside of me like never before! I need food and I wanted it now! The pangs were so bad that I found myself hallucinating. I swear I could see what appeared to be a diner a few hundred meters up the road, in the middle of the road!

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I peered once again at the blurred forms seated in the dining area. I knew they were real, living, breathing people. Yet my eyes seemed to be playing tricks on me! I couldn’t quite bring them into focus, like looking through the lens of a camera that needs adjusting to sharpen the image of the object you are wanting to photograph. This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger!

“I must be caught inside an episode of The Twilight Zone! I mean, How in the hell did this diner just pop up in the middle of the road for crissakes!”

I had really lost the plot this time! Food deprivation certainly has some weird side effects that’s for sure! It wasn’t like I hadn’t eaten in days or anything. I’m sure it had only been a few hours or so. Yet my stomach was all concave and felt like it hadn’t had sustenance in its folds for days!

Everything about this diner felt “off”. Yet I couldn’t fight the urge to keep searching for answers. All of my instincts told me that what I was seeking lay just beyond the kitchen doors. I had never been so scared in my life! What if I didn’t like what I find? Am I actually alive, or have I died and this is my version of hell? There was only one way to find out. “Here goes nothing!” I said out loud as I stepped through the doors into the unknown.

I didn’t think I would make it. Yet Here I stood, exhausted and starving but happy to see Ma’s Diner directly in front of me. The aromas of freshly grilled food enticing me with the promise of a full belly. I had stopped questioning as to how this could be possible when my hunger forced me to spring into action. Now that I was here, I began to realize that it was something more that had lead me to the back entrance of the diner. Without hesitation I grasped the door handle, pulling it open. Momentarily I felt blinded by the bright lights flashing from inside the diner kitchen. A low humming, whirring sound was soon to follow. I could feel that time was of the essence so I stepped inside without further ado.

My heart was pounding so loudly that it was almost deafening! Everything felt out of my control yet I had never felt so alive! That in itself told me that I was definitely not dead. Or perhaps this was heaven and I had just gone through a test to see if I was worthy. It was dark when I first stepped through the doors, and an incessant humming vibrated through the walls. Followed by a flash of dazzling bright lights, and then…I saw you!

Do my eyes deceive me? Or is it really you I see before me, my love? “It is you!” is all I could manage to say as tears of joy flowed freely from the corners of my eyes. This was not what I had expected. No not by far! But I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I-I-I don’t know what to say. I knew you were not a figment of my imagination, but this is just too bizarre! Even for me! “I managed to stammer as I drank in every piece of you with my eyes and my heart. I gathered you into my arms needing to feel that you were of solid form, not like the blurry, fuzzy people sitting back in the dining area. You were indeed very-very real!

You held me so tight I could barely breathe. Yet I didn’t want you to let go for fear that I would wake up and find this was all just a dream. Somehow two people who had never met yet knew they were destined to be, found each other under the weirdest circumstances! Whoever orchestrated this “chance meeting” had certainly gone above and beyond to make this happen and I would be forever indebted to them!