To the pretty girl who smiled at an old man across the parking lot
SOMETIMES COLORFUL human interactions are painted on a canvas as mundane as a parking lot. A parking lot is an asphalt jumble of hurried comings and goings, as impersonal as a tepid “have a nice day.”
And then a pretty girl smiled at me as she left the coffee shop and headed across the parking lot to her car. These three thoughts occurred right away: Who was she? What was she thinking? Why did she smile at me?
The unexpected fleeting encounter happened so quickly I wasn’t sure the smile was meant for me. It was a lovely smile without the slightest hint of coquettishness. It barely changed the contours of her face, yet it was one of those quirky unscripted moments you find in a Billy Collins poem. My only thought was to say, “thank you,” but she was gone before I could untie my tongue fast enough to get the words out.
The universality of a smile bridges the gap between generations. I’m guessing our gap was at least 60 years. My inquisitive mind creates stories around unexpected events. Years of separation dissolved in a single shared moment across a parking lot and drew us together.
Her smile was not an invitation. A reflection of my mug in the shaving mirror proves that. Besides, she kept going and never looked back as she walked to her car. Maybe she saw the years etched in my face like the lines of a well-read book, saw me navigating the modern world with a sense of familiarity and with a smidgen of disillusionment. (A much more dramatic word than “confusion.”) Later, did she tell her friends about the surprised look on the face of the old man she saw? Did she laugh about it? Is mine the face that launched a thousand quips?
That’s not the story I want to take from that brief encounter. I like to think that someone as pretty as she, instinctively understood the beauty of human connections. And like the Last Duchess in Browning’s poem “she has a heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad.” I was not the first or only person that day to be favored by her. I harbor no illusions that her smile spoke of anything more than our shared humanity.
After all, it’s not often that pretty young women express romantic interest in older gentlemen unless those gentlemen happen to have “shipping magnate” attached to their names.
I couldn’t let her smile go. The transitory encounter left an indelible mark on my heart. In this super charged age the generational gap can be a barrier to understanding our differences. The simplicity of her smile bypassed the obstacle of time. It was as if she injected helium into my body and whatever suspicion was there was lifted right out of me. The pretty girl’s smile reminded me that regardless of age, there is always room for shared joy, for new connections, and for appreciating the importance of the present and how special every day is.
There is a meme making the rounds on social media about a man who unexpectedly lost his wife. While golfing with a friend, chatting about nothing, he asked what his friend’s dinner plans were. He was told, “my wife wants me to make my homemade chili and cornbread, but I don’t feel like stopping at the store.” They were silent for a few moments, when the widower quietly said: “Make the Chili.” The talk was no longer about dinner. It was about going out of your way to do something for someone you love because at any moment, they could unexpectedly be taken from you.
So smile at a stranger. Make the chili. Use the good china, put linen napkins on the table, stop saving that bottle of wine for a special occasion. Today is a special occasion, especially when a pretty girl smiles at you.
People ask where my column ideas come from. I don’t know, and I hope never to find out. I don’t want that goose to run out of golden eggs. I enjoy sitting outside coffee shops looking at the world. If you look close enough you’ll see mini-dramas happening all over the place. Sometimes you become part of the drama, and if you invite it in, the world will come to you.
So to the pretty girl who smiled at an old man as she came out of a coffee shop and left an indelible mark on his heart, a smile that lifted his spirit and gave him a greater appreciation of the one person in his life who always makes him smile and makes everyday a special occasion, thank you.
Contact Jerry at jerrygervase@yahoo.com
