Certain steps need to be followed in order to achieve maximum efficiency and satisfaction. There can be no shortcuts, no cop-outs. Perfection must be achieved.
Step One: The Target
Sam's eyes were glazed over, hiding a mind that's focus lingered between memories of pixelated screens and songs that should be long dead. His backpack bounced lightly as peers jostled around him, moving on to their next class unawares of what is about to be. He was ready.
Step Two: The Signal
I make eye contact. My demeanor breaks through the fog of his irises and dragging him into reality. My hand goes up, just slightly. He knows. His hand rises as well as he changes his course ever so slightly. He is a veteran.
Step Three: The Wind-Up
I continue walking as I move my elbow back. The distance is closing fast and I force out the thousand painful memories of times past. Still, a light tingle of painful anticipation rises to my palm as I turn my body to achieve the greatest amount of force.
Step Four: The Contact
My hand dives forward, seemingly of its own accord. My eyes stay focused on Sam's adolescent palm until finally our hands slam together. The contact is only for a moment, yet is perfection not fleeting? The acoustics rival the clap of Zeus the Thunder God himself and the reverberations rock the blessed bystanders nearby.
Perfection.
Step Five: The Follow-Through
I continue on with the tingling in my palm mixed with the utter satisfaction in my soul. We all must go on. To live in the past is to surrender to a life absent of future glory.
I walk on.
