new story, part 2

Part one of this story...

She had left her earring on the bar. I don’t know if she had taken it out to talk on her cell phone or if it was just a nervous habit but it was there, next to a stack of paper coasters on the bar touting a local defense lawyer specializing in DUI cases. I took it over to her and just sort of stood there with it cupped in my hand like an insect or a loose contact lens, making one of those general sorry-to-bother-you gestures and saying, “Hey, I think you left your earring on the bar over there…”

It was enough to start a conversation, her earring, even with the weak body language of the gesture and the banality of the introduction generally. Her name was Caitlin, and she was conflicted about wanting to play some Shania Twain song when Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash were on the jukebox as well. I told her that she should just go with whatever she thought best, because it’s not like they hand you an instruction book when you turn 18 that you can consult throughout the day…you’ve pretty much got to wing it, and try to figure out what works well for you, and what doesn’t. I actually believe that, sort of, but not strongly enough to make me stick around for a Shania Twain song, that’s for sure.

She didn’t end up choosing any songs; as we stood there talking I guess people started queueing up around and past us until she would have had to wait at least an hour and a half to hear her choices, and we had decided to go try to find some Ethiopian food anyway. A taste for Ethiopian food was one of the things we had discovered we had in common, although neither of us knew of a place here in town that actually served it. It was one of those pretexts for leaving together that wouldn’t withstand much logical scrutiny, but it didn’t need to.


read the final part of the story here...