Time Marching On # 5

Thousand Oaks, California

Dennys Restaurant

May 14, 2021

10:17 AM

Looking up, nodding,“thanks.” As a server refilled both cups.

“And then, when Barbara became one of our three finalists, we figured a way to meet in Chicago. Now remember…” sipping, then blowing on my hot coffee “...I still had no idea what Barbara looked like and —outside of my sexual fantasy— actually thought she’d be grossly obese, in which case I would singularly make use of the room that I had reserved in my name with a king-sized bed.

As still, other than our back and forth small talk? Okay, Ron, yeah, I knew! Seeing as Barbara was married and lived 3,000 miles from me and had a Down's syndrome sister along with her ill mother that she helped take care of, to say nothing of our twenty-four year age difference, I knew that whatever might happen on that weekend would — sexually platonic or not— most, or more than probably end when we’d say goodbye on that Sunday afternoon.”

10:25 AM

Waiting as the waitress placed Ron’s and my— other than sausage, Ron had ordered bacon—breakfasts onto the table before us.

“Anyway, after three months of wondering ‘should I go’? ‘Should I not go and I tell Barbara I changed my mind’?”

Taking a fork-full of crispy hash-brown potatoes. “Well, as you’d probably guessed, I didn’t change my mind, and — remember I was twenty-four years older than Barbara and in any case, wanting to look a b it more youthful…” eating the hash-browns “... but not wanting to look…” laughing “... as though I was trying to appear a bit more youthful; wearing designer jeans, a designer label chambray shirt and a dark blue, lightweight cashmere sport jacket, my one overloaded suitcase, that I’d been able to shove in the overhead compartment in hand.”

“ ‘Viagra’, you ask?” I laughed. “Of course I had!”

Sipping coffee. “I had no idea what to expect, and hadn’t the slightest idea how to react in any case.”

Cutting into a link sausage. “So, I'm in the ‘arrivals’

area, looking around when I see a lady looking in my direction…”

“Don’t know? Maybe 5’ 3” or 5’ 4” and a bit on the, uh, chubby side.”

Author’s Notation: Barbara had short cut, dark brown hair and, coming closer, Mitchell saw light brown eyes and a round, somewhat attractive face but this lady looked too young to be Barbara.

10:29 AM

“When I saw her…” turning from the window and the parking car that had distracted me “…I thought she was too young to be her. But the woman was smiling at me and before I could look over my shoulder to see if the smile was meant for me or for someone behind me, then…” cutting a piece of fried egg-white with the edge of my fork “...shocking me, the lady’s arms were around my neck and she was kissing me and…

Didn’t know, Ron! But there was something about that strange kiss that seemed… “

“Didn’t know what or why, but remembering our age difference, I remember thinking: ‘Fuck ‘em if they think I’m her father’! And kissed her back and also remember, that for a reason that escaped me at the time, I did not want to let her go.

Standing in that crowded airport, kissing this woman that was and wasn’t a complete stranger, I did not want to let her go!”

Motioning to a passing server to re-heat our cups.

10:34 AM

Taking another fork of hash-browns. “Don’t worry…”

“You’re not? Okay! But I’m not going to bore you with all the sexy stuff that happened on that weekend but...

Let me tell you, for example — If you’re simply thinking ‘good or bad, other than the great depression both Barbara and I felt because we only had that one weekend, every second that we spent together was wonderful.”

Dabbing a piece of toasted sour-dough onto one of the two egg yokes “...Barbara was beautiful!”

“I don’t know!” Dabbing again, then eating the piece of yoke soaked bread.

“I can’t tell you why! Maybe it was like the saying: ‘Only in the eyes of the beholder’. But whatever my first impression of Barbara was, let me tell you, Ron! To me Barbara was beautiful!

Seeding her. Taking Barbara piece by piece — she wasn’t fat or skinny.” Looking across the table, at my friend. “She wasn’t pretty or ugly. She was…? I don’t know, Ron. Maybe once in a lifetime, you might meet a person with a…

10:37 AM

A car pulling away from a Dennys’ parking area momentarily drawing my attention.

My thoughts coming together.

“She wasn’t pretty or ugly. Barbara was Just a woman in a million that if you passed on the street you wouldn’t give a second glance at. And, at least for me...”

Remembering the sensations I’d felt while with Barbara. Sensations that went far beyond sex. Sensations that I’d felt in the pit of my stomach telling me I musen’t let this woman leave my life.

Sensations that went far beyond those that in my memory I’d never before witnessed. Love? Of course! Sex? Of course! But also, and maybe foremost: the need to remain in the glow of this woman.

“Ron there was a…” hesitating “...I know it’ll sound corny as hell! But there was an inner glow a bout her. Something about Barbara that radiated… I don’t know… an, inner warmth… a godlessness.”

“Yeah, Ron!” Speaking forcefully. “An ‘Inner warmth’  and ‘Goodness’!” Lowering my tone. “I know I’m painting Barbara as though she wore a halo while she was there in Chicago with me, and how’s about the fact that she had a husband back home?”

Finishing what remained in my coffee cup, and signaling a server to refill it.

10:42 AM

“I don’t know what to tell you about her husband! All I knew or cared about was that Barbara was there with me and I’d ‘never’ been with anyone that made me feel...

A far back memory forcing misty wisps forward.

But I had!

Author’s Notation: But Mitchell had! Howeverf it was so long ago. So far back that at this time at age eighty-seven, it had been near eight decades ago, near three full generations since…

As thoughts may travel in ones mind as a blip in time. As a blip in time when the inner warmth may return as no more than a remembrance.

But I had…

In the ‘Northwestern’ college town of Evanston, Illinois on December eight, nineteen-fifty-one. Then Seventeen year old Mitchell Lipensky had met then fifteen year old Susan Friedman: ‘The Girl on the Kitty-corner Stool’ at a Walgreens luncheon counter.

Remembering the warmth. The inner glow of instantaneous love.

Remembering the inner warmth of instantaneous love. Thinking, seventy years ago! Eighty-five now, Susan might even be dead by this time. Why… Looking at an attractive elderly gray haired woman sitting at a table across the room. With some surgery, she might even be Susan! How would I even know. How would she even know me?

10:42 AM

“I don’t know what to tell you about her husband! All I knew or cared about was that Barbara was there with me and I’d ‘never’ been with anyone that made me feel so...”

Nodding, ‘thanks’ to the server re-refilling our coffee cups.

“My boring you yet?”

“I’m not! Okay then, I do want you to know, though, that I do! I do love Marsha and guess I’ve always loved her since…

You know we met each way back in…? Guess it would have to be way back in ‘nineteen forty-nine’. Met each other when my family was on vacation in the country when she was barely thirteen and me not even fifteen yet.

And through all these years, even when I thought I hated her, I think I’ve always loved her, but…”

Cutting the second sausage link, along what is left of the second egg white, eating both. Sipping hot coffee.

“But… Shit! I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”

“So it’s okay, Ron? So you really want to know what happened with Barbara?”

“Yeah! Well Barbara and I had that Friday afternoon and night and the whole day Saturday— That’s when the poetry association holding the contest had the selected contestants each recite two of their poems…”

Laughing. “Yeah! She kept poking me in the ribs with her elbow whenever I started to snore.

But then we had that evening and night, our only full day, actually.”

10:47 AM

Finishing the third sausage and using hash-browns to mop up a broken egg yoke.

“Hell! Yeah, Ron! Seems like I’m the guy doing all the talking, so it’s okay to ask.”

“Yeah! We sure did! Good thing I brought six of those little blue pills.”

Remembering…

“Then, when Sunday afternoon came…”

“No, we had no idea who won the contest at that time and didn’t even care because when we were sitting waiting for her plane to board…”

“We’d talked about it! Oh, my God, Ron, Barbara and me talked about it and both knew that because of her obligations to her sister and mother and because she was married, after all. To say nothing about our twenty-four year age difference, and the fact that we lived better than three thousand miles apart. Trust me! We considered every possibility, and when the call came for Barbara to board, there we were, a seventy-four year old man and a fifty year old woman crying on each others shoulders…

Then she got into the line and disappeared through the hatch leading to the plane.

Barbara’s east bound flight left Chicago at ‘two-fifteen’ Chicago time and my west bound plane about forty minutes later.”

11:09 AM

“Want more coffee?” Considering signaling a server, but changing my mind. “Yeah, I’ve had enough, too.”

Motioning to the waitress for the check.

“No, no! You’ve sat here for just about an hour listening to me blather on, I’ll get it!”

11:13 AM

Out of Dennys’ parking lot and onto the angled roadway leading to U.S. 101 South.

Hot outside now. My side window fully open.

“Yeah, Ron! Let me tell you, it was one really shitty trip back to L.A., then the long drive to home as all the while I kept hoping there’d be an Email from Barbara waiting for me.”

“Yes…” glancing to my left “...there was; telling me that she could not remember when she’d ever been sadder, and that doing this — seeing as there was no possible way to bring our lives together— was more than she could handle and thought it best that we cut all ties to each other, and that after she says ‘goodbye’ here, she’s going to change her Email address and telephone number and drop out of ‘Writers Place’.”

“No, we never had personal contact again again, and given ime to think about it, like Lita leaving, I began to think it was for the best.”

“Oh, yeah. Turns put Barbara did win the poetry contest and, about six months later, when her book of poetry was published, I received a copy sent by Special Delivery, care of Writers Place.

                          A Three Day Lifetime”

                                        by

                        Barbara E. Longford

“Opening to the dedication page I read..."

Dedicated to my Chicago muse with everlasting love.

                                     B.E.L.

“Yeah, Ron. Of course I cried. If you come in with me, I’ll loan you my copy.”

“No time now. Okay, next time I see you then.”

Pulling into my driveway.

“Thanks for the ride, Ron, and for listening to me.”

“Okay. I promise, next time, ‘why Marsha and me got banned from the lake’.”

Entering my home, “Hi, baby!” Marsha on the sofa in the family room reading her ‘Kindle’.

Looking up. “Hi, Mitchie! You have a good breakfast?”

“Yes. Anything new?”

“No… Oh, yeah. Got a call from Sharon.”

“How’s she?”

“Says she’s feeling great and misses you and me and just loves her new home in the Phoenix Del Webb senior community, and can’t wait for us to come and visit.

Next: Time Marching On # 6