Metsa #Wattys2016

Why Can't She Cry?

I craned my head to the side to see the immediate change in the girl's expression. No longer robotic like, her face shined with the same aura of an excited child about to learn something new. To be honest, I never really liked children, finding them rather cunning in what people would claim are their "cute ways". So you can't really blame me for thinking, Is she toying with me?

Was this her plan all along when she saw me marching towards her table? To ignore me, then as I was leaving, call out to me for the sole purpose of testing my reaction like I were a specimen in some experiment of hers? Somehow--other than the unlikely scenario of her being a scientist with loose ethics--that didn't seem to be the case. The girl's face dripped with innocence and sincerity, two properties too real to even have been an act put together by the world's greatest drama troupe.

I nodded my head, "Yeah, I saw that you were alone so I thought I would say hi...that's all..." What would her reaction be? Positive? Negative? Indifferent, yet maybe, slightly amused?

"So...so..." She held one slim finger towards her face as confusion oozed out its every pore. "You can...see me?"

The last two words "see" and "me" were spoken softly like they were a top government secret that even she shouldn't know.

"Umm...yeah?" What did she mean by that? See you?

Closing her eyes, her lips twirled into a wide, warm smile looking unnatural, yet, somehow, human in every form, just far more sincere than all the cynical acrobats I've grown accustomed to.

"I'm relieved!" She exclaimed, clasping tiny hands together and dilating her already big smile twice its length. "I had a feeling that you were talking to me, but I wasn't sure. This way, I'm not disappointed!"

I scratched the back of my head, a nervous behavior, not knowing where to go from here. I thought at the most I would get a hello back, but this was a bit too much. I have never met someone who seemed so...I don't even know how to describe it. Happy is far from being the right word, but it's definitely a descendent of the right word hunkering in this useless brain of mine. To be honest, her demeanor kind of scared me because it caught me off guard. That and I didn't actually have a plan for what would happen after I got her to talk to me. Funny how six months of quietly observing her, carefully crafting so many outlandish backgrounds for her, and whipping up future scenarios of us together never ventured close enough to step two: what I would say in response if I managed to get her talking. As if, all it would take would be me casually saying hello then everything else would line up perfectly without a half a hiccup.

Hoping to extend back some of the courteous manners that she gifted me, I held out my hand for a formal greeting, wondering if such an action made me look like a dork, gentleman, or simply a jackass. Do people even shake hands anymore? The last time I shook someone's hand, it was my history professor who was 70 something...not exactly the type of presence I wanted to invoke in front of a cute girl.

"I'm Terry Rochester, pleased to meet you." Her eyes darted to my hand with a faint glisten. She seemed hesitant at first, like she was expecting my hand to be wired to a bomb fitted to destroy all of Eastern Europe, but soon grabbed my hand with a light grip which matched up perfectly with her light handshake. Her skin...soft. It sent an intense shiver through me. Okay, time to wane myself of such thoughts!

"Terry...Rochester? That's a strange name, isn't it?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I guess my last name isn't the most common name but..."

Confusion flashed upon her dainty face once more, like it never left in the first place. "Last name...what's, that?"

"Ugh...what do you mean?" I forced myself to laugh, hoping that it was an amateur attempt at making a joke. "What did you think Terry Rochester was one whole name or something?"