Shadow and Light Poetry

Sparks Flew From Heart to Heart

Sparks Flew From Heart to Heart

The dreams started when Sam was a senior at Berkeley High School in 1974, around Maria’s birthday in late May. About a month before Sam graduated, he fell asleep in a physics class after lunch and had his first dream:

A beautiful Asian woman was standing next to him talking in a strange language. She was stunning – the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was in her early twenties, with long black hair, and piercing black eyes. She had the look of royalty.When she looked at him with love blazing from her eyes, sparks flew from heart to heart. It was love at first sight for both of them. She looked at him and then disappeared, beaming out of his dream-like in "Star Trek."

He fell out of his chair screaming, "Who are you?" She did not answer.

Later that day Sam told his best friend, Robert S, who was in the class with him, about the dream. He also told them that he knew that he would meet her someday and that was the woman he was destined to marry.

Robert said,

"Man, which is crazy shit, dude. You had best quit smoking weed before class man. You be high. have any of that shit?”

"Nah, I smoked it all up. But dude, the dream is real”.

" Whatever, dude,”.

Sam told Robert’s parents, Bob, and Ruth about the dream. Bob and Ruth were close to Sam. Sam hung out at their house a lot to escape his parents as he had grown up in a very dysfunctional family.

Bob said,

Well, that is the craziest love story I have ever heard so it must be true.”

Ruth said.

Follow your dreams. You will have to meet her someday, but you may have to go to Asia to find her. Where do you think she is?”

Maybe Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam? The Philippines? But not China because whatever she is speaking is not Chinese.”

One day Sam was late for his summer job working in the parks department. He had the dream again at about 6 am and it woke him up. The same thing occurs. She is standing there talking to him and she has love in her eyes for him. She reaches out to touch him and then disappears. He felt electricity flowing from her as she touched him. Sam got up and accidentally broke the mirror in the bathroom.

Sam tells his mother who said that he will have seven years of bad luck as a result of breaking a mirror later

Sam many years thought that he had endured seven years of failed relationships and missed romantic opportunities because fate was conspiring to prevent him from getting seriously involved with anyone else because the universe was saving him for his one true soul mate.

A few days later, Sam is hanging out with his friends Matt and Mark playing pool at his house downstairs in the basement. Sam tells them that he had the dream again.

Matt says,

"Dude! That is just too creepy to believe. You should not be telling people that shit, they might think that you are some sort of nutter. I mean we know you are nuts but in a good way and we love ya for its bro, but others well they might think you are certifiable.”

Mark looked at Sam and said,

"Yeah dude, which is crazy shit, I mean shit like that ain’t real you know what I mean?”

"Matt, Mark, I swear to God it is too. I had the dream again. And I know I am going to meet her and marry her someday.”

" Right on dude. Party on! We believe you.”

About a month went by and then Sam started having the dream as he called it, repeatedly. It was always the same pattern – early in the morning, she would stand next to me talking, I would ask who she was, and she would disappear. She was the most beautiful, alluring woman he had ever seen, and he was struck speechless every time he had the dream.

One day in late May, about a week before Sam graduated from college, he had been accepted into the Peace Corps. He had a deadline to respond to whether he would accept the proposed assignment. He had a choice of going to Korea as a TB control worker in August or to Thailand as an ESL teacher in a rural school in October. He was leaning towards Korea. He had taken Japanese and Chinese history classes in college, and he was fascinated with the region and was curious about Korea. And besides, he was ready to get going.

On May 18, 1979, at 5:30 Sam had a slightly different dream. In the dream, she told him when he asked where she was, “Seoul, Korea.” And smiled at him. And disappeared as she usually did.”

In August 1979, Sam arrived in Korea. He looks around and sees thousands of women who look like the girl in the dream, but none of them are her. He knew he was going to meet her. He started having that dream monthly. Usually near the end of the month and always first thing in the morning. The dream was always the same. She would repeat the word Aka which Sam later learned was the Korean word for baby and became her pet’s name once they met. The rest of the conversation he could not understand at all.

One winter while Sam was in the Peace Corps, he went to Taiwan on a personal visit. He met a famous fortuneteller who made three predictions – He would marry an Asian woman; he would marry when he was 27 and he would become a diplomat. All three predictions turned out to be true.

After the Peace Corps, Sam took a job in Korea and decided that he would give it one more year. If he did not meet her by then he would return to Seattle to go to Graduate school at the University of Washington in Korean studies. Sam moved about the entire country. Sam was lonely, dissatisfied, and. felt that he was wasting his time. He kept having the dream though.

On September 7, 1982, Sam got on a military bus at Camp Casey near where he lived in Tongduchon in a rented room. He was living very basically those days out of a suitcase in a rented room as his employer kept sending him all over the country. He must have moved at least ten times that year.

That morning he had the last dream. And somehow felt that he was about to meet the girl in the dream. In the dream, she came to him again, but this time, Sam understood her Korean.

She said, "Don't worry, we will be together soon and once we are together, we will be together forever. I have been waiting for our last life together. And now I have found you.”

That night, Sam got off the bus in front of Camp Red Cloud where he was teaching. Sam got off the bus and the girl in the dream walked off the bus, out of his dreams, and into his life. It was the moment he had been waiting for all his life.

The class went by in a blur. Sam was still stunned that he had met her. He came up with a lame excuse that he wanted a language partner, and she could help him with his Korean, and he could help her with her English.

She spoke English well as she was an English Education major at Sungsil Woman’s University and was a senior. She was 23 years old, and he was 27 years old. He was born in the year of the goat, and she was born in the year of the pig. According to fortune-tellers they had a perfect astrological chart and were soul mates.

That night Sam called his friend Robert, who had been in the room when Sam had first dreamt of meeting Maria and told him that he had met the girl in the dream.

Robert, “I have big news; I met the girl in the dream. The girl I have been dreaming about for these last eight years. She is real. I met her on a bus. She is stunning. She is a college senior, and we are meeting tomorrow. “

"Dude. That is unreal. But whatever you do not tell her about the dream, at least not right away. That might freak her out. It would freak anyone out. Shit like that does not happen you know man. Are you all, right? Been taking drugs? Drinking too much?”

"Dude. It is all good. It is real. And I am going to marry her!"

"Whatever dude. I believe you because you believe in the dream, I sure hope it is real.”

"It is real, dude.”

The next night she was waiting for him at the army base where he was to teach a class. She told him that she had to see him as she had something to tell him Sam signed her on to the base and left her at the library to study. She was a college senior, she told him. They went out for coffee after class at a classical music cafe. She told him she was madly in love with him and that he was the man for her. He told her not to worry as he felt the same.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they met each day and went for a long walk in the mountains near the base and had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. She made him kimbap (Korean sushi rolls) every day.

They talked further about her life and his life so far. Her English was far better than his Korean, so they mostly talked in English. She was a senior at Sungmyeong Woman’s University majoring in English Education. But she wanted to work for a corporation rather than become a high school English teacher. She was also going to start a graduate degree at Seoul working on an MBA degree in a new program that was taught in English.

He told her that he had been accepted to go to the University of Washington for a MA degree in Korean studies but would start that in about a year. He would be teaching for CTC for a few months but wanted to find another teaching job somewhere in Korea as he was tired of teaching on base and the pay was not particularly good. Sam told her that she could come to Seattle with him and study there. She looked at him and said that she would love that.

Maria looked at Sam and spoke.

“Sam, it is obvious we belong together. You are mine and I am yours.”

“Maria, I agree. Let us get married, October 29th is my legal birthday. We can do the paperwork then and have a wedding later. What do you think?”

“Sure. That will work. You have to meet my parents though soon.”

"Okay”

In any event, they agreed that they would do the formal paperwork through the embassy on Friday, October 29th, 1982, which was Sam’s birthday.

They married two months later after a Buddhist priest told her mother that our astrological match was a perfect fit. Her mother did not want her to marry a foreigner. One day about a month after they had met, she invited him to meet her parents, but she did not tell them Sam was a foreigner. Sam brought a bottle of Jack Daniels for his Father-in-Law and Uncle in law and drank the entire bottle with them. He approved of him, but Sam’s Mother-in-Law still had reservations. After the Buddhist Priests told her it was a perfect astrological combination, she agreed, and they planned to get married.


As she put it, “Who am I to go against the will of heaven?”

and so, they got married.


PS

They married in 1982 and are still together in 2023

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Based on my true love story.

The End

How about a quick contest in honor of Valentine's Day 2024?

Here's the premise: Use one of the following Prompts to write a new story of Love and Romance.

Prompt #1... Has it been that long?
A couple has been together for a long time. One worries that their relationship has cooled. What do they do about it?

Prompt #2... A Blaze at First Sight.
Two people are brought together ... they have never met before, but something's in the air. What happens at that moment and afterward?
(They can have a shared acquaintance; in case they have been set up on a blind date. They just can't have met each other before this first encounter.)