Romance Briefs

Romance Briefs: Passages

Probably

The girl was ignoring the pleas from the other campers to join them in the lake, but her attention was on the 18 year old boy who was assigned the job of lifeguard that morning. She had been fawning over him the entire camp, but he didn't seem to mind. 48 years later; she could still hear the distant squeals of laughter amid the splashing water and she could also still see the smiling eyes of the boy along with the smell of Coppertone baking in the sun.

'Time is precious dot com' wasn't the name of the dating site for seniors, but those who used it regularly to find a mate, a new friend or simply for entertainment, referred to it that way or in many cases; TIP. It was kind of an inside joke that newcomers to the site learned very quickly.

She had been a member of TIP for over a year now and had gone on a few dates. These 'dates' followed the same pattern; some back and forth banter and a phone conversation here and there and then finally plans to meet. Nothing earthshattering or even anything resembling a mild tremor occurred on these dates and when it was over, it was time to move on. She wouldn't say she was avidly seeking someone to fill the void of her late husband, but she was looking nonetheless.

Then there was this one man. She had been in contact with him almost from the start. She would write him and he would immediately write back. He never started the conversation, he'd only respond, but how he responded. The subject was always about her; her reflections on life, her last date from TIP or her take on world events. Not once did he suggest that they talk on the phone, nor did he ever allude to an in-person meeting, but he was always there for her.

"Last night I had a date with a man who spent the entire evening talking about his knee operation...I was riveted to the point of falling asleep" she wrote to her 'pen pal' as she had come to think of him.

"Was that all through a dinner or was he talking through a movie? You know I've warned you about men who talk during the feature" he wrote back.

He always had something to say to her that made her feel like she was a young girl parrying with some older boy she met at camp one magical summer...a feeling she only remembered feeling when she was a teenager. There was a boy like that, but that was hundreds of years ago. She was 15 and he was 18. She thought he was the epitome of manhood even though he was just a boy working a summer job before college. They wrote to each other for almost a year after that summer and then...it just stopped. Their lives went on without each other.

She emailed him back after surfacing from the daydream of that long ago summer... "Why is it that we've never heard each other's voices; is it part of your plan to hide behind the written word?"

"I was waiting for you to notice" he wrote back, "how long has it been; almost a year?"

"At least that long" she responded, "are we keeping to your schedule?" She hoped that just maybe, he would suggest something. After all, they had known each other for almost a year now and the subject of them even talking on the phone had never come up...until now.

"Are you sure you wouldn't be happier just having me in your pocket for when you need someone to write to? This has been a delightful little journey for me, even if time is precious. I've enjoyed being there for you...even if only with the written word." He continued; "You tell me what it is you want."

There it was; the first time she had been moved in a very long time and it was only his words on a computer screen that did it. All of a sudden, she had questions; questions she wanted to ask him that she had neglected to entertain the entire time they had been in correspondence. 'What had he been doing with himself? Had he always lived in Charlotte? Had he gone out with women he met on TIP?