The phone rang in the art gallery and I answered.
The voice was a young woman's.
One of her two parrots had died rather suddenly.
She wanted a colorful frame for the memorial portrait. Could we accomodate her?
Sure.
What was she going to do now? The remaining bird was sulking.
I suggested Parrots Without Partners.
I don't where my tasteless jokes come from. The just.....come.
Silence...then, laughter........more laughter....
She brought in the photo. We chatted.
She worked for American Airlines. Flight Attendant.
Cute. Cuddly. Curvy. Pleasant.
I suggested we have dinner sometime.
Smile.
"Yes."
She'd be back in 3 days from Hawaii. She would call.
In the meantime her room mate would pick up the framed photo of her beloved deceased parrot.
The phone rang.
The room mate.
When could she pick up the framing?
Lots of bubbles in her personality.
She arrived. We chat. She laughs.
More laughs.
Now, why is it WE are going out? How did this happen?
Three days later, room mate number one returns. She is now engaged!
Okaaaay.
Room mate number two stays in touch.
When in town we go out.
You know, friends. Fun. Good company.
She has been divorced for 6 months.
I've been divorced for a year.
It is 1985.
By 1986 she is the coming of a season. Time brings and takes. Brings and takes.
It is the mid afternoon.
We've known each other a long time now. We talk about everything and everybody.
Comfortable. Calm. Casual.
I'm sitting in a chair in her apartment and she is selecting which shoes she'll wear to dinner.
I say something. She isn't really listening.
I can't read the expression on her face.
She is just standing there...
I stop talking.
Finally, she walks over and sits across my legs like she's about to tell Santa she wants a tea set for Christmas.
Okay. This is new.
I start to say something and I stop.
Something...is.....??
She leans in and we start to kiss.
I haven't kissed anybody in a long, long time!
It all comes back to you, somehow.
She is a good kisser.
No--a great kisser.
That one kiss is a looooong kiss.
In fact.....it isn't about to end anytime soon.
They say flocks of birds stay ahead of the winter in their travels. As the changes occur they are signalled aloft in an uplift of flight as though many were one.
Our one kiss found many seasons and changes and patterns of flight. Dazzled, delicious and dangerously daring we darted in delirious directions for what seemed days and days...
But, it was just one kiss.
I was thirty-eight then. I'm sixty-six now.
I was standing in my closet a few seconds ago looking for my shoes and I stopped. For no particular reason I turned around and sat on the edge of my bed and thought.........about......THAT kiss.....