It were the first words he said to me when we were waiting in line at the supermarket. Apparently he skipped the line by accident, turned his head to excuse himself, and looked right in the face of a girl that was day dreaming. That girl was me, to be clear. If day dreaming was a paid job, I would be on the Maldives with a cocktail in my hand celebrating my retirement at the age of 34, because it appears to be my default mode. And it’s also the reason why I looked at him vaguely, cause I had not noticed he was skipping the line. I just saw a guy who wanted to make conversation with a very odd opening.
‘How did it feel?’, I replied.
– ‘Like I want to do it again, but not feel bad about it.’
‘Oh, you feel bad about something? You shouldn’t. Whatever it is that goes through your mind right now, just remember we are all just one tiny part of a huge universe. One we’ll never fully understand, and which can give us the best version of ourselves, if we would just surrender. If it doesn’t consider hurt in a very bad way, just erase this thought from your memory. Don’t overthink this situation, it’s a waste of time, and the older we get the more we seem to understand we have so little of that.’
I did not know where that came from, but now it was his turn to look at me vaguely. Something he performed like a professional. I could swear that we would be sitting on the Maldives together day dreaming our life away. And the longer he stared, the more I imagined that wouldn’t be the worst situation.
– ‘Right. Well, I just wanted to say sorry. It wasn’t my intention to do so.’
What was this guy talking about? He fed my curiosity with every word he was saying, so I just decided to play along with it.
‘But, still you did’.
– ‘Yes, I did. I had a terrible day, and was all up in my head. I didn’t even notice you, until you looked at me.’
‘And I didn’t even notice you until you looked at me. This could be solved really easily if we ask to look at the cameras to see who really looked first, but we could also create our own versions’.
– ‘Versions of what?’
‘Of how we met.’ At this point, my mind already took a huge leap and I was standing on the edge of no return. It was amazing what the effect of a stranger that decided to just randomly start talking about his bad day, had on me. It was as I’ve had been giving a green card to create stories. To speak, instead of wonder what could have been if I’d played along with this creative way of getting someone’s attention.
– ‘I think it’s safe to say we met at the supermarket, waiting in line. But I’m not really sure anymore, cause like you said, the universe is a huge entity and the way miracles do sometimes turn into reality, we’re not even sure about how real our perceptions of things are. We could see or dream things that are not even real. For that it’s sometimes safer to rely on your feelings.’
I was shocked. How on earth was it possible to have a conversation with a complete stranger that included the word ‘universe’ within the first minute, and not feel weird about it. I was instantly happy my mind took a turn to crazy when I was rattling about the universe, because apparently it matched his way of thinking. Honestly, I need more of this. Should I just invite him over for…
‘You’re up.’
My thoughts were interrupted and I briefly grasped for air. A movement that took me out of my day dream. I looked behind me and saw a man, with a confused face. There was no guy. There was no him. There was no quick encounter, that could have been the start of something beautiful. There was just this older man that started to move impatiently, waiting for me to hurry up. I made my way over to the desk, and started smiling.
These three minutes of my life could have been so boring, but my mind chose to create a story. It chose to get me out of the real world, and make me curious about something. Our minds are a fantastic thing. I rode my bike home and as soon as I got home I started writing.