I saw her on the Promenade just before sunset today. I knew it was her right away, even though I hadn't seen her since last fall up in Fort Tryon Park. She was dressed differently, slim brown jeans, ski sweater, suede ugh boots. Her hair was in a pony tail that made her look totally adorable. She still wore the same glasses, and she was walking a white dog. She looked younger like this, maybe seventeen.
She smiled at me when she caught my eye, asked me how I'd been since October. The funny thing was, she didn't seem any more surprised than I was that we were meeting here, under another sunset. I told her I'd had the kind of winter where you start feeling your age and she laughed. "You're not old, Jim!" she said, "It just seems that way because you've been here so long. I used to feel the same way, but now I know how short our time is here. Does that make any kind of sense to you?"
Silly thing was, it did make sense to me.
We stood side by side leaning on the fence, watching the sun slide below the foothills of the Watchung Mountains on the edge of the Jersey horizon. I wanted to put my hand on her shoulder, but I was too afraid that it would pass right through her and touch the cold steel fence instead. I melted inside when I saw how the sunset colored her warm brown eyes. She smiled up at me and said, "Jim, you know that sooner or later you're going to kiss me. And you know what's going to happen when you do."
God, that day seems like it can't come soon enough....
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