The Book Nook

33

What are you going to do about it?

Those were Mister Cedric Kim's words to me; straight to the punch, no dancing around.

He showed me over to a nearby bench and the two of us sat down, the large sunflowers behind us possibly tall enough to blot out the sun - were we to be in the right part of the day. For the time being, it bathed us in its morning glory.

Mister Kim showed a kind interest in getting to know me even though I was a complete stranger, just a boy who wandered over and began speaking to him as if we'd met one another previously. He didn't mind in the slightest, he said. It wasn't often he got to have long conversations with fellow memorial garden perusers.

I recounted to him how Alexandria had told to me the story of the time he and her had met for the first time. It was a story that stuck with me ever since. I didn't want to ask about his illness because a part of me was uncomfortable with knowing anything further. It felt like it were none of my business. He didn't mention it either; I only said how inspiring the story was to me.

He recollected fondly about meeting Alexandria.

"She really was, and is, something altogether different, isn't she?" Mister Kim gave me a sly grin filled with an elderly love. "I'm not that far removed from my youth, you know. I can understand what you see in her." He added a wink.

"Never just an ordinary girl, no sir," I chuckled. "That wouldn't have made even nearly as interesting of a story."

"Oh too true!"

The two of us laughed. It was extraordinary finding a kindred soul like this man. I was glad we had something in common to bring us together, even gladder that it was something I had progressively more interest in by the day, to the point where this girl had become the highest reoccurring thought in my head over anything else by far.

This specific realization - another one of many, it seemed - caused me a moment of retrospect. I had always, in the history of my whole adolescent life up to my current early adulthood, had something to occupy my thoughts and desires. In my teenage years it was always what I would do next; what fun thing there was to do, what awesome memory to make, who to hang out with and where to go. Later, it became school. I wanted to succeed, even if I didn't know where I was headed or what my end goal was, but I still wanted to do well at my degree program. So I set my eyes on that and focused.

I was always preoccupied with less tangible things like worrying about how I would spend my time and how I could be having fun instead of the less ideal ways of not having fun. But I had never once known what it was like to have another person be at the forefront of everything. My own family were always secondary characters in my life story. Even the nice girl I dated for a short while in college never brought much out of me. Not like this.

"I'm glad you fell into Alexandria's path when you did, Mister Ki - er, Cedric."

He looked contemplatively off into the distance.

"Opening scenes are funny," he said with a tilt of his head, "because you never know which elements will change over time and which will stay the same."

Did I have any inkling I would become so entwined with another person I would end up meeting inside that bookstore the day I had went in looking for a job, even after securing said job? No, not in the least. Mister Kim was right, opening scenes were funny that way.

"But what about you?" Mister Kim broke my introspection, shifting himself more toward me. "I don't know too much about you, my friend. Or exactly what your involvement is with our precocious mutual friend. Not my place anyhow. But have you asked yourself why it is that you've become this invested?"