Woman at a Coffee Shop

I glance up to my right to look out of the window, the sound of a barking dog sounds way closer than the dog park at the other end of the coffee shop. I don't see any dogs directly outside of the window and I let my eyes wander back inside the building and skim over the couch area across from me. To my surprise, a woman looks up from the book she is reading and catches my gaze. It is only for a second but I feel a pang of familiarity, and she is beautiful. She is glowing, her skin looks like Agua de Tamarindo in the sunlight and her silky straight, black hair is pulled back into a high ponytail. Baby hairs frame her round-almond eyes; casually elegant. My eyes move away from hers, quickly but reluctantly, focusing back on the paper in front of me. Her eyes move away just as quickly, settling onto the page of the book in her hands.

I have been tasked with writing a piece on the topic of "A time in my life when my true self shone through." The challenge came from a website of writers, all genres from fiction, to non fiction, to poetry. The platform has given me a home in cyberspace, I feel inspiration from reading other writers stories and poems. Up until I created my profile, I had thought that, that type of inspiration was impossible for me to find online. This is why I took on the daunting challenge (at least daunting for me) of defining my true self in a candid story of 600 to 5,000 words. I have spent weeks contemplating, reflecting on my life and my actions. In fact, just last night I had stayed on the phone with my best friend for hours, revisiting all sorts of instances in my past that, to this day make me proud of my character and grateful for my boldness.

"You know one time," I had said after a while. "I was at a summer camp in the mountains, somewhere in New York. I was in the third grade at the time and I don't remember the exact location." I paused thoughtfully, "When I was young, I knew I was a god, a child of the gods, down to my core. It was my deepest truth. I have only ever met one other person in my whole life who has know the same truth about themselves. She was another third grader at that camp in those New York mountains. A girl with round-almond eyes and skin the color of Tamarindo in the sunlight."

Eighteen years later, the day after revisiting this memory, I am sitting in a coffee shop that doubles as a dog park. What are the odds that I would see somebody who reminds me so much of that little girl in the mountains of New York, the only other child of the gods I have ever met.

From time to time I glance over at her sitting comfortably on the couch, I can only hope she does the same to me. I am too shy to make direct eye contact. I would love to ask her about back then, how did she make the air around us smell like the rainforest? Does she remember the Luna Moth we found outside the cabin, and the pregnant leech we found stuck to the bottom of the canoe? I want to ask if she still remembers eating sea salt and vinegar chips and splitting caramel filled chocolate bars. I want to know if she can still predict when the lightning will strike. Does she remember standing in the forest with me as I sang to the sky, and brought in the rain with the wind?

But what if the beautiful woman at the coffee shop is not her? I long to feel the familiarity that I have only felt once before in my life. The comfort of being close to another god is something that is difficult to come by. I let the minutes ooze by without getting up from my seat. I sip on my ice water, basking in the warmth of her presence across the room. Neither of us look up from our work and the sky becomes dark, I am so deep in my daze that I have missed the sunset. Since the coffee shop is closing soon I cap my pen, close my notebook and throw away my empty ice water cup. I silently curse my cowardice as I walk towards the door, neither of us have said anything to each other past our initial eye contact. Frigid air hits me as I open the door and plunge into the night. It's a long walk through the city for me to get home.

I examine the street lights as I slink from shadow to shadow, avoiding the gazes of other people of the night. The street lights look beautiful, glowing orange-yellow like giant fireflies. I grew up in the city but I have always felt more at home in the thick canopies of the forest. The smell of the earth around me instead of the (more often than not) questionable characters you meet prowling the streets of downtown. As this thought crosses my mind I see a shadow, human like, flicker in my peripheral. Someone is following me.

I keep my breath steady and my mind clear, and quicken my pace. There is a park I can cut through a couple blocks up ahead, I can probably loose my pursuer there. I ignore the urge to look behind me and instead dedicate all of my focus to the path ahead. It doesn't take me long to get to the edge of the park and as soon as I step foot onto the grass I start to run. The park is not lit as well as the city streets, only a few sparse lights scatter the fields. I head towards the center of the park where only one light stands in the deepest part, in a small clearing surrounded by trees. I get to the perimeter of the trees quickly and make my way in between the trunks towards the dimly lit clearing in the center. I no longer feel a presence pursuing me. I figure I have lost them, and I slow down as I reach the edge of the clearing.

"Hee-hee," I hear in my ear and I freeze, startled. My heart starts to pound and my breath becomes a bit ragged as a gust of wind blows past me. A figure crosses the clearing in a blur and stops just outside the circle of light. I can only see their silhouette. We stand on either side of the clearing facing each other. "Hee-hee" the figure giggles again, but louder this time, and steps into the light. My breath catches in my chest, she is still glowing like Agua de Tamarindo in the sunlight although night has already devoured the day. It is the gorgeous woman from the coffee shop.

I step into the light too, we stare at each other for a minute. I take in her dark baggy street-wear style clothing. She looks tough, not somebody you would want to mess with, it was something I hadn't noticed in the coffee shop. It turns me on, she seems like a city kid like me. She takes a hunting knife out of the holster around her waist and points it right at my heart, my adrenaline is pumping. I love the way she looks at me with savage laughter in her eyes and a smirk teasing me on her lips. She begins to walk towards me, blade out in front of her. I stand frozen, a deer in headlights. She keeps closing in until the tip of the knife gently touches my chest. I am breathing hard by the time she gets close to me, I feel like I can taste her in the air and I realize the park has started to smell like the rainforest.

"Sing for me." She commands. Her tone makes my knees feel weak but my voice comes out forcefully, from deep within my belly. I sing her the old songs, music of people and places that had existed long before either of us were born. The wind starts to pick up. I quicken the melody and let my voice crescendo into the clouds. Tears are streaming down my face and her eyes look wet and warm. I throw my face up to the sky and cry out the melody as thunder cracks the night. Lightning strikes and before I can feel the first drop of rain on my face she has put away her knife, and pulled my body up against hers. I look at her, my lips parted but before I can register my surprise, she kisses me. I kiss her back, I wrap my arms around her neck and let myself fall in love with the only other god I have ever known. The rain comes down heavily around us.