One Syllable Story

          How much can you care for a girl you met one time? I don’t know her last name, just her first. She was on a park bench the one time I saw her. She had her blonde hair up in a bun on the top of her head and I don’t think she had slept in days. I was in the park at the time with my dog, Luke We had jogged the trail a few times when I had to take a break. I was out of breath and she was just there, with her side bag and a book. I think it was a copy of The Old Man and The Sea. I know I was in love with the book in her long, thin hands. She looked up and I got a good view of her face. It was as if time stopped, as lame as that is.

         She had red lined eyes. She had cried in the near past, I could tell. You have to know that I was not a man that girls seemed to like too much. I was just a high school kid who tried to get a friend of sorts where I could, of course that meant it was guys most of the time. A girl was like a myth to me and my friends back then, while we hung out in my shed and drank or played in our band. They would not buy that I had met this smart, cute girl on a park bench. It was love at first sight, for me that is.

         That's when she looked up at me and let out a big sigh like this park was the worst place in the world she could be right now. “I’m Ann,” is all she said. The sky was grey but the fall was lush with dead leaves of all shades. I saw that she was cold by the way she held her arms close to her chest. I gave her my coat just to see her smile with her two long rows of pearl teeth. This was no plain girl next door type. She was all the friends I had met in my life all rolled in one. She was like the first snow of the year and the first rain of the spring. Her blue eyes were bright and wild with a mind full of things I would not, could not get then, nor would I get in the rest of my life.

         “What’s your name?” she asked, and I saw how rude I had been to lose my train of thought. I told her my name was Matt and she did a little nod and bit her lip in deep thought. “I want to leave, Matt. I want to leave and I don't want to come back. I can tell you that much. I’ve made my mind up. I’m gone.”

         She lit a cig and took a long drag, then passed it my way. I took it with haste and felt the sweet smoke fill my throat and lungs. I was glad I had smoked a lot with my friends or I would have coughed and been a big joke to this cool, wise girl. “You want to leave, too. Don’t you? I can tell.” How did she know? Her eyes were so bright; I could have sworn they read my soul. It put me on edge and I wiped the back of my hand on my head, like it was hot out.

         “I guess. Not right now though. Soon? I have school and all that...” A sad group of words, I know, but it was all I could say and I just let my voice trail off as her eyes burned right through me. If I had known more, I might have made a choice that would have changed my life. But, I was just this small town chump on a park bench with a girl who had a whole life just past this place that she was set to meet right now. It would not wait.

         “Soon? There’s no time for that, Matt. I hope the rest of the year treats you well.” And with that, she was off. Out of sight, but still in my mind as she turned the block where the drug store met the snow cone shop. I felt a sad hole form in my chest like I had never known. I wish I could say it left at some point, but I don't want to lie.

         I would hear from Ann in my dreams from that point on, and trust me when I say I heard from her quite a bit. I’ll think of her for the rest of my days, if my luck is with me. When I do, I’ll think of the few blonde wisps of hair that blew in the wind that day, free of her bun and her pale skin that tried and did tempt me so to give up all that I had known and just go with her. On my day of death, I will think of what could have been and where we would have gone, just Ann and me.