Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 00:10:34 EST From: gilbertsmith <gsmith@social.chass.ncsu.edu> Subject: WHTMLNATBC 1 To: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu> WHAT HAPPENED TO ME LAST NIGHT AT THE BERKELEY CAFE 1 1) An empty evening, depressing, yes it is, since I was scheduled to do the dinner piano music at a benefit dance and received a mysterious phone call two days ago informing my answering machine that there was a "glitch" in the plans and I was not needed and they would be in touch. So, a good band playing at the Berkeley and I will run the risk of running into the lady from down by the river, whose phone calls I have very obligingly not been returning for some three weeks now. 2) I get there and the crowd is small. No LFDBTR, nor her friend, in whom I have some budding interest and who is my best dancing partner. Only the woman who is also a friend of LFDBTR, who also seems to come from DBTR, and, to add to the complication, has had a 2 year relationship with LFDBTR's *son*, though she is about 20 years older than he. I ask her to dance, which she does, with me, I mean to say. Then later we dance again this time swingy stuff rather than close up tight, which she was obviously not very comfortable with. Then, I move her toward the dance floor again after a while and she says: "No. I don't want to right now." 3) So my feelings are hurt, and I decide she wont get another chance unless she asks me. Then a large group arrives, several women near my age, so my interest rises. Two of them come to the bar, I stare at them intently, but they do not return the stare. I wander over near their table and watch them, but they pay me no mind. Oh well. 4) My best dancing partner arrives and I spend some time dancing, then drinking more beer, then dancing, then drinking more beer. Then, one of the women from the table gets up, comes all the way across the room and walks right up to me. Through the fog, I say: "Hi." She says: "Do you come here a lot?" I say: "Yes I do. Do you?" She says: "No. But I think I should." 5) Later, I realize that she means: "No. But I think I should because *you* are here." I never in all my life. 6) So I say: "Do you like to dance?" She says: "I don't dance very well, but I have a friend over there who does and would like to dance." I say: "But, do *you* like to dance?" She says: "Yes." So I say: "Maybe you will dance with me after a while." She says: "Maybe I will." Then she is gone. 7) My mind reels. This is a fantastic looking woman. Just the right shape, right age, definitely does not live down by the river, and she has come all the way across the room just to talk to me. I dance with my best dancing partner, very very aware of <showing out> for this woman, whose intense stare I can feel all over my <being> as I move around the floor, executing my best steps to the amazement of my best dancing partner, who says: "You know, I am with someone, but you dance much better than he does. I've never seen you like this. What's going on?" I say: "I have no idea." 8) So she has crossed the room just to tell me that I am her major attraction for the evening. What can this mean? Am I assuming too much? She has taken my breath away and what am I to do? --ggs Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 00:42:57 EST From: gilbertsmith <gsmith@social.chass.ncsu.edu> Subject: WHTMLNATBC 2 To: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu> WHAT HAPPENED TO ME LAST NIGHT AT THE BERKELEY CAFE 2 8) So, the music gets better and better and I realize it is now or never. If I am going to do it, I have to do it *now*. So, I say to my best dancing partner, thinking perhaps this will suppress the obvious electricity between us, I say: "A woman just made a pass at me and I have to go pick up on it." She laughs but I can tell that her heart is not in it, that there is a bit of disappointment in her smile.... Oh well, if you are going to find your true love you are going to have to break some hearts along the way. 9) I go to their table and offer my hand to the woman with a little "Would you like to dance now?" thrown in. The touch of her hand is like heaven... a heaven that I've never known.... Uhhh, where was I? Oh, yes. We get on the floor and ohmygod! ... this woman moves... We do some slow bluesy swingy stuff and then I pull her up close for a bit but she sort of avoids that, so back to swinging. Afterward, I say: "You dance very nicely. *What* *is* *your* *name*?" She answers by saying her name, very slowly and very deliberately, accentuating each part of it with a little movement of her hand... like she really wants me to remember this. I think I will die.... but I manage to tell her my name... then for some reason... I don't remember what she said but it was an invitation to tell her something about myself, so I said something really stupid like: "I teach Spanish at NC State..." 10) She brightens up and says... "On, really?" Like she has some connection to that, some little coincidence, maybe we know the same people.... But she says: "I teach first grade..." So *that's* the connection. We both teach. Wow. 11) Then we are back at the table, I squeeze her arm and say thanks and go back to my group. Then another dance with my BDP and I again feel like I am performing for this woman, the absolute last and final love of my life, this woman who has just popped into my life when I was ready to give up and join the convent. --ggs Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 00:50:09 EST From: gilbertsmith <gsmith@social.chass.ncsu.edu> Subject: WHTMLNATBC 3 To: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu> WHAT HAPPENED TO ME LAST NIGHT AT THE BERKELEY CAFE 3 12) After a decent interval of a few songs, I go over and offer my hand again. She accepts. This time it is a little slower and a little closer, and then a little more snuggly... and I say: "You are taking my breath away... Who are you?" She snuggles a little closer. 13) She says something like "You are the .... here.... tonight..." I say: "What? What did you say?" She says: "I said, you are the more fantastic thing here tonight...." I surely will die, this cant be happening, maybe I am drunk. I say: "That's exactly what I was thinking about you." Then the music stops and I say "Come out here with me where we can hear each other. I have to find out who you are and *where* you are..." She follows, since I am pulling on her hand, but she seems a little reluctant. In the other room, I tell her my name again, and she says: "Do you have a card?" I say (oh shit) "No I don't have a card... but you can call me at ...." She says: "I really have to go back, because......." --ggs Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 01:00:43 EST From: gilbertsmith <gsmith@social.chass.ncsu.edu> Subject: WHTMLNATBC 4 To: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu> WHAT HAPPENED TO ME AT THE BERKELEY CAFE 4 14) So she says "I really have to get back because that's my husband sitting next to me at the table...." I say: "Oh, *shit*... your husband?" She says: "Yes..." Then she is gone. 15) So I brood a while and hang around behind them and watch as she sits on his knee, then dances with him, then.... Then she gets up and joins a couple from her table dancing by herself.... so I go over and join her and we have a very very nice close dance and I whisper sweet nothings in her ear and it is very cosy and then, suddenly, out of nowhere..... comes the husband.... and he takes her by the hand and pulls her back to the table.... 16) And it all has happened so fast I hardly realize what is going on..... I am in a fog. Have I imagined all this? Was she just enjoying herself having a nice dance with me.... ? Am I drunk?.... 17) Soon after, they all get up and leave.... I go home alone, driving when I shouldn't, probably, and the next morning it seems like a dream. What can this mean? --ggs |