Where has the whole experience of life gotten me? Nowhere, really. And yet everywhere, at the same time.
Yesterday, I got married.
So...if I did not know where I am going, or even where I have been, at least I won't be going it alone. as long as it lasts. Maybe I should ask her about direction? Maybe she knows. I just, sort of, met her, so I really have a lot of stuff to ask. I have to get to know her.
I love waitresses. But a tray in the hands of a woman, add the short dress, and I fall in love. So I guess it is natural that I married one. She said she recognized me, and that she had the broken heart to prove it. That was rather funny, so perhaps I had better explain it. I had been to her restaurant months before. Had some beer and some chicken wings, I guess. Then, most likely, some more beer. As I was leaving I spotted one of those coin machines that sell trinkets. In the old days they use to sell gum balls. I put some money in, and out came my prize. Inside a plastic ball was a cheap piece of aluminum jewelry, a heart that broke in two, with one side part of a cheap key chain, and the other side part of a cheap necklace. I snapped it in two, and then returned to my table to leave the half heart with the necklace on top of my bill and my money. She hadn't run over yet to check my tip. I sort of liked that.
I kept the key chain. it was too cheap to use, but I put it in the coin tray in my car. And I forgot about it.
I was back at that place last week. I didn't see her. To be honest, I didn't look. I had sort of forgotten about it. But she saw me. She had to trade tables to be able to serve me. I wasn't in her section.
She made the trade, and came over to me. I recognized the heart right away. I looked up, and she was smiling. Really smiling. Her eyes were shinning. "Thank you!" were her first words. The chain had broken she said, and she showed me the sterling silver chain she had replaced it with. I thought that made the half heart look even cheaper, but I never would have said that!
Before I could even order my beer, she told me that she wanted to get married. It took me a minute or so to realize that she meant to me. I don't know how that statement is suppose to make you feel. I think it made me thirsty. I could be wrong. I think I was thirsty already. She said that she recognized me as her fate.
That was last week, and it has been a busy time. I waited around that first, or should I count it as second, night, until she was off duty. I think she booked off early. All the girls working kept looking at me with strange smiles on their faces. We went out, to another restaurant, as a matter of fact. She ate, I drank beer, we talked. And talked. We got to know each other, a tiny bit. She is a pretty thing but, more important, she has a gentle soul. And a will of iron. In a surprisingly short time, I got use to the idea of marriage.
She had made all the arrangements. She was nice enough to check with me about the details, but everything she had picked seemed alright. I could think of no changes. We had blood tests done the second day, and got to the Judge yesterday. Some of her friends from the restaurant came as witnesses. The Judge told me that I was a lucky man. Her eyes glowed throughout it all.
It was only as we signed the legal papers that I learned her real name was not the same as the one on her nametag. All the girls use fake names at work, she told me. It throws off the customers who fall in love. I thought that was rather funny.
For a wedding present, I gave her a sterling silver half heart. A twin on the first one, only a little more valuable. By accident, both of the witnesses gave us the same gift. We started off our new life together with two bread makers.
It all seems sort of funny, now that I think about it. I had to write out a letter telling the news to family and to friends. Actually, this was the letter, but I figured that I had better tell the story to them in a different way.
She is a great cook. The real bonus is that she brings me my food on a tray. What man could hope for better than that?
I just asked her about direction in life. She told me that we have nothing to do with each day except to live it.
And then she kissed me.
Metadata: