A story I'm vaguely working on. I really, really like it. I'd almost leave it jsut as it is, but I've introduced too much plot to let it end now.
The Sea Above the Sky
When we’re kids, our mothers tell us stories. Stories to lull us to sleep. Stories to make our imaginations soar. Stories to frighten us and stories for us to marvel at.
But they are just stories.
I had a normal life. I had a normal 9-5 job in a normal sized cubicle. I had a normal girlfriend who I was going to propose to in a normal way. She would give me a normal “yes” as an answer. I had normal clothes in a normal apartment in a normal neighborhood.
The world was a normal world.
But normal people don’t tell stories. Not about their normal lives. Normal people only tell stories when their normal lives suddenly become not so normal.
I was on my way to my normal job, taking my normal subway ride, when I first met…”her.” Which I’m sure you knew was going to happen. It’s always about a girl, isn’t it?
And like all girls that these stories are about, this girl was special. The difference is that when I first met her, I didn’t think she was special. I thought she was completely out of her mind.
Standing room only. I’m holding on to a pole. Across the isle, so is she. There’s eye contact. Random. Not one of those love-at-first-sight deals. Just coincidence.
She gives me a look and a smile. Not a bright, cheery smile. More like an I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile, bordering on a smirk. There’s a faint touch of dimples and a red shimmer through her brown hair. Her eyebrows rise as she speaks one word.
“Normal.”
I turned around and didn’t look at her for the rest of the trip.
When we pull into the station I jump out the door as fast as I can. And somehow, incredibly, there she is. Standing in front of me. She was on the other side of the train from the exit. And she would have had to shove her way through a dozen people to get out. But, there she was.
“You work over in the Anderson building?”
I didn’t answer.
“Usually cross the business mall on your way to lunch?”
“Yes…” I offer hesitantly.
She hands me a black compact umbrella. “You’re going to want this when you come back from lunch today.”
And then she was gone, lost in the swarm.
She was kidding, right? It was the middle of summer. A dry spell and a heat wave. The entire city was under water restrictions. Plants were dying and fountains were dead. It was too hot for things to even bother catching on fire and she was handing me an umbrella?!
I shook me head and was intent on tossing it as soon as I got onto the street. But I didn’t. I was so busy trying to sort out who she was and what she was talking about that I completely forgot what she had done. The umbrella stayed in my hand all the way to my cubicle.
People smiled and made jokes on the elevator. I laughed them off and said I just had a feeling about today. But in the back of my mind I was worried. I was sweating. It was like I thought that my entire future was hanging on whether or not a complete stranger’s random, erratic weather prediction would come true.
It was absurd.
It was crazy.
It was not normal.
Work did not go well. I mean, I got everything done that I needed to. And it was to the normal standards that I always perform. There was the obligatory “good job” when I handed it in. There were the standard greetings from my co-workers. The faces that were made at the morning’s staff meeting were made just as always. At the end, just like always, there was the no-man-is-an-island-there’s-no-“I”-in-“team”-I-have-a-boss-I-report-to-just-like-you speech given by our boss in an attempt to make it seem like you’re working for a “pal” instead of a “boss” even though you know full well he wouldn’t he hesitate to fire you. Especially if it was to cover his own tail.
Normal.
But not.
There was this weird feeling the whole morning. Like a buzz in my head or a ringing in my ears. I tapped my pencil a lot. I spun in my chair. I tapped my fingers. My shoes. I fidgeted. I bit my lip and looked at the clock even though I knew it hadn’t changed.
I was waiting for it. I was anticipating. What was I doing that for? Some crazy lady on the subway hands me an umbrella, tells me I’m gone need it, and disappears again. That is not normal.
And I wasn’t very happy about it. When I saw this lady I was going to give her a piece of my mind. I was going to tell her a thing or two. Like stop following me and handing me umbrellas. Yeah. That’s what I was going to do.
“Hey!”
I jumped.
It was a co-worker.
“Boss just gave us this project thing. Says it needs to be done before we go to lunch.”
“So I tell her ‘considering all the money I spent on you to put you through law school, I think it’s about time I spend some on you for something I want’. I mean, I have that right, right?”
It’s one of those too-much-information moments with a co-worker. One of the normal things I could do without. I wanted to pound my head against the wall. Or his.
“So anyway, she won’t get the breast implants and now I’m sleeping on the couch. Again. Hey, we’re done. You wanna grab some lunch?”
“Yeah.” I check my pants. “I’ve got my wallet. Let’s go.”
It wasn’t until we were paying the check and I was making sure I had grabbed everything I brought that I remembered the umbrella.
“Oh shit!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I forgot it. Damn it.”
“Forgot what? Something on the project?”
“No. My umbrella.”
He raises an eyebrow and stifles a chuckle. “You’re kidding right? You’re freaking out over an umbrella? It’s like, 100 and some degrees outside. We haven’t had rain in two months.”
“Yeah, I know. But this umbrella was…look, I was just supposed to bring it and I didn’t.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I’m going back to work now. You coming or you going to wait for Mary Poppins?”
“Hilarious. No you go ahead. I’ll walk back on my own.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
I walked rather glumly across the cobblestone courtyard. Skyscrapers loomed around me. Rectangles that had been professionally mutilated, all by the same person, to make people somehow believe that each building was unique.
It was sweltering and I loosened my tie, staring at my shadow as it flailed its arms about.
Then I looked up.
And there she was. Baggy, gray cargo pants. A hooded sweatshirt tied around her waist. A messenger bag that looked rather worn and a red and gray baseball styled shirt with thumbholes cut in the sleeves. And a white, short sleeved, dress shirt.
She was standing under a black umbrella.
She had that grin on her face again.
Not sure why, I walked over to her. Almost my height, she didn’t really have to look up to me.
“You forgot it.”
“Who are you?”
“That’s why I’m here.” She held out the umbrella to me.
I backed off. “No. Tell me who the hell you are and why you’re following my?!” I was close to shouting. Strangely, I was embarrassed and worried people were looking. Shouldn’t she have been the one worried about that?
But she just sighed. In a swift movement, she was back to standing just a few inches from me. She stuck the umbrella over my head.
The water did not sprinkle. It didn’t drip, drizzle, rain, spit, spout, trickle, or any other of the myriad of words people to use to explain just what the weather’s like.
It gushed. It poured. It was like someone had dumped a bucket out…if that bucket was the size of the moon. It was a blanket. It was a wave. It was this wall of water that just fell straight down from the sky and shattered against the ground. And even though not a drop of it touched me, I still made that face. The one you make when someone dumps a bunch of cold water over your head.
And then I stood frozen in shock. Like I couldn’t believe someone had just done that to me.
Even though, at worse, I only had a few splatters on my pant legs.
The girl was soaked. And as I stood there sputtering, I couldn’t help but feel really, really guilty. If I had remembered my umbrella, she wouldn’t have had to give me hers.
I was about to say something. But I was feeling a bit overwhelmed all at once so before I did, I noticed something rather odd about the water.
It started with the smell. Then the way the rest of the people in the courtyard were shaking out their clothes and the way things were sticking to their skin. Then I noticed the taste, in the air, and in the few drops that had somehow landed on my lips.
It wasn’t rain.
It was salt water.
“Ha-en…” I murmured a sound. It definitely wasn’t a word. It was several words combined. It was me asking “what happened?” and “how did you know?” and “salt water?” and “why would you give me your umbrella?” all at the same time.
She just shrugged. “You have a meeting coming up when you get back. I didn’t want you to go in it all soaking wet.”
“But…”
She shook her head, a little irritated, waiting for the rest of the question.
“How did you know?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I don’t?”
“No. It’s one of those not normal things that makes you so uncomfortable.”
“Oh.”
She turned to leave.
“Wait,” I called after her. I was torn between wanting her gone, wanting her to stay, and needing more answers. “Why me?”
She paused, looking perplexed. “I’m not sure really. I think it was just the coincidence of the matter.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I was riding the subway because I had decided to go out to breakfast instead of cooking. And on the train I happened to take, I made eye-contact with someone who just so happened to be someone who would need an umbrella today.”
“Me?”
“You.”
“And you just happened to have an extra one today?”
“No, I actually saw you yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yes, but you needed the umbrella for today, so I went back on the train.”
“I don’t remember you.”
“I know.”
“We made eye-contact?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember.”
“It’s okay. It happens more than you might think.”
“Eye contact?”
“No, people forgetting me.” she glanced over at the large corporate clock provided in the center of the square. “You should get going. You’ll be late if you don’t go now.” She turned to leave again.
I watched her go for a moment before the click in my head gave me a kick in my pants and I ran after her. “Wait!” I called.
She stopped, turning around. She had a smile on her face again, a softer one than I had seen. A kind of amused look. “You’re going to be late,” she warned.
“Would you like to get a cup of coffee or something?” I asked, though it was a lot harder than the text implies.
She smiled again, even softer. “Are you sure?”
“No, but I’m getting this feeling that I shouldn’t let such a strong coincidence be wasted either.”
“Then I’d be happy to. Here.” She handed me a business card. “Meet me here at 6 tonight. We can have a drink instead.”
“Okay,” I said, taking the card. “I’ll, I’ll see you then.”
She was a mask of amusement and walked away.
“Wait…” I called.
“That’s three times you’ve asked me to wait,” she called back.
“What’s your name?” I shouted.
She spun, flashed a mischievous grin, and vanished into a blur of people, sun, shadows, and corporate art.
I just stood and stared after her.
Slowly my perplexity faded into calm amusement, followed by a slow budding, bubbling, subtle sense of happiness.
“Oh shit!” I took off running.
As predicted, I was late.
But I was not soaking wet.
The Sea Above the Sky
When we’re kids, our mothers tell us stories. Stories to lull us to sleep. Stories to make our imaginations soar. Stories to frighten us and stories for us to marvel at.
But they are just stories.
I had a normal life. I had a normal 9-5 job in a normal sized cubicle. I had a normal girlfriend who I was going to propose to in a normal way. She would give me a normal “yes” as an answer. I had normal clothes in a normal apartment in a normal neighborhood.
The world was a normal world.
But normal people don’t tell stories. Not about their normal lives. Normal people only tell stories when their normal lives suddenly become not so normal.
I was on my way to my normal job, taking my normal subway ride, when I first met…”her.” Which I’m sure you knew was going to happen. It’s always about a girl, isn’t it?
And like all girls that these stories are about, this girl was special. The difference is that when I first met her, I didn’t think she was special. I thought she was completely out of her mind.
Standing room only. I’m holding on to a pole. Across the isle, so is she. There’s eye contact. Random. Not one of those love-at-first-sight deals. Just coincidence.
She gives me a look and a smile. Not a bright, cheery smile. More like an I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile, bordering on a smirk. There’s a faint touch of dimples and a red shimmer through her brown hair. Her eyebrows rise as she speaks one word.
“Normal.”
I turned around and didn’t look at her for the rest of the trip.
When we pull into the station I jump out the door as fast as I can. And somehow, incredibly, there she is. Standing in front of me. She was on the other side of the train from the exit. And she would have had to shove her way through a dozen people to get out. But, there she was.
“You work over in the Anderson building?”
I didn’t answer.
“Usually cross the business mall on your way to lunch?”
“Yes…” I offer hesitantly.
She hands me a black compact umbrella. “You’re going to want this when you come back from lunch today.”
And then she was gone, lost in the swarm.
She was kidding, right? It was the middle of summer. A dry spell and a heat wave. The entire city was under water restrictions. Plants were dying and fountains were dead. It was too hot for things to even bother catching on fire and she was handing me an umbrella?!
I shook me head and was intent on tossing it as soon as I got onto the street. But I didn’t. I was so busy trying to sort out who she was and what she was talking about that I completely forgot what she had done. The umbrella stayed in my hand all the way to my cubicle.
People smiled and made jokes on the elevator. I laughed them off and said I just had a feeling about today. But in the back of my mind I was worried. I was sweating. It was like I thought that my entire future was hanging on whether or not a complete stranger’s random, erratic weather prediction would come true.
It was absurd.
It was crazy.
It was not normal.
Work did not go well. I mean, I got everything done that I needed to. And it was to the normal standards that I always perform. There was the obligatory “good job” when I handed it in. There were the standard greetings from my co-workers. The faces that were made at the morning’s staff meeting were made just as always. At the end, just like always, there was the no-man-is-an-island-there’s-no-“I”-in-“team”-I-have-a-boss-I-report-to-just-like-you speech given by our boss in an attempt to make it seem like you’re working for a “pal” instead of a “boss” even though you know full well he wouldn’t he hesitate to fire you. Especially if it was to cover his own tail.
Normal.
But not.
There was this weird feeling the whole morning. Like a buzz in my head or a ringing in my ears. I tapped my pencil a lot. I spun in my chair. I tapped my fingers. My shoes. I fidgeted. I bit my lip and looked at the clock even though I knew it hadn’t changed.
I was waiting for it. I was anticipating. What was I doing that for? Some crazy lady on the subway hands me an umbrella, tells me I’m gone need it, and disappears again. That is not normal.
And I wasn’t very happy about it. When I saw this lady I was going to give her a piece of my mind. I was going to tell her a thing or two. Like stop following me and handing me umbrellas. Yeah. That’s what I was going to do.
“Hey!”
I jumped.
It was a co-worker.
“Boss just gave us this project thing. Says it needs to be done before we go to lunch.”
“So I tell her ‘considering all the money I spent on you to put you through law school, I think it’s about time I spend some on you for something I want’. I mean, I have that right, right?”
It’s one of those too-much-information moments with a co-worker. One of the normal things I could do without. I wanted to pound my head against the wall. Or his.
“So anyway, she won’t get the breast implants and now I’m sleeping on the couch. Again. Hey, we’re done. You wanna grab some lunch?”
“Yeah.” I check my pants. “I’ve got my wallet. Let’s go.”
It wasn’t until we were paying the check and I was making sure I had grabbed everything I brought that I remembered the umbrella.
“Oh shit!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I forgot it. Damn it.”
“Forgot what? Something on the project?”
“No. My umbrella.”
He raises an eyebrow and stifles a chuckle. “You’re kidding right? You’re freaking out over an umbrella? It’s like, 100 and some degrees outside. We haven’t had rain in two months.”
“Yeah, I know. But this umbrella was…look, I was just supposed to bring it and I didn’t.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I’m going back to work now. You coming or you going to wait for Mary Poppins?”
“Hilarious. No you go ahead. I’ll walk back on my own.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
I walked rather glumly across the cobblestone courtyard. Skyscrapers loomed around me. Rectangles that had been professionally mutilated, all by the same person, to make people somehow believe that each building was unique.
It was sweltering and I loosened my tie, staring at my shadow as it flailed its arms about.
Then I looked up.
And there she was. Baggy, gray cargo pants. A hooded sweatshirt tied around her waist. A messenger bag that looked rather worn and a red and gray baseball styled shirt with thumbholes cut in the sleeves. And a white, short sleeved, dress shirt.
She was standing under a black umbrella.
She had that grin on her face again.
Not sure why, I walked over to her. Almost my height, she didn’t really have to look up to me.
“You forgot it.”
“Who are you?”
“That’s why I’m here.” She held out the umbrella to me.
I backed off. “No. Tell me who the hell you are and why you’re following my?!” I was close to shouting. Strangely, I was embarrassed and worried people were looking. Shouldn’t she have been the one worried about that?
But she just sighed. In a swift movement, she was back to standing just a few inches from me. She stuck the umbrella over my head.
The water did not sprinkle. It didn’t drip, drizzle, rain, spit, spout, trickle, or any other of the myriad of words people to use to explain just what the weather’s like.
It gushed. It poured. It was like someone had dumped a bucket out…if that bucket was the size of the moon. It was a blanket. It was a wave. It was this wall of water that just fell straight down from the sky and shattered against the ground. And even though not a drop of it touched me, I still made that face. The one you make when someone dumps a bunch of cold water over your head.
And then I stood frozen in shock. Like I couldn’t believe someone had just done that to me.
Even though, at worse, I only had a few splatters on my pant legs.
The girl was soaked. And as I stood there sputtering, I couldn’t help but feel really, really guilty. If I had remembered my umbrella, she wouldn’t have had to give me hers.
I was about to say something. But I was feeling a bit overwhelmed all at once so before I did, I noticed something rather odd about the water.
It started with the smell. Then the way the rest of the people in the courtyard were shaking out their clothes and the way things were sticking to their skin. Then I noticed the taste, in the air, and in the few drops that had somehow landed on my lips.
It wasn’t rain.
It was salt water.
“Ha-en…” I murmured a sound. It definitely wasn’t a word. It was several words combined. It was me asking “what happened?” and “how did you know?” and “salt water?” and “why would you give me your umbrella?” all at the same time.
She just shrugged. “You have a meeting coming up when you get back. I didn’t want you to go in it all soaking wet.”
“But…”
She shook her head, a little irritated, waiting for the rest of the question.
“How did you know?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I don’t?”
“No. It’s one of those not normal things that makes you so uncomfortable.”
“Oh.”
She turned to leave.
“Wait,” I called after her. I was torn between wanting her gone, wanting her to stay, and needing more answers. “Why me?”
She paused, looking perplexed. “I’m not sure really. I think it was just the coincidence of the matter.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I was riding the subway because I had decided to go out to breakfast instead of cooking. And on the train I happened to take, I made eye-contact with someone who just so happened to be someone who would need an umbrella today.”
“Me?”
“You.”
“And you just happened to have an extra one today?”
“No, I actually saw you yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yes, but you needed the umbrella for today, so I went back on the train.”
“I don’t remember you.”
“I know.”
“We made eye-contact?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember.”
“It’s okay. It happens more than you might think.”
“Eye contact?”
“No, people forgetting me.” she glanced over at the large corporate clock provided in the center of the square. “You should get going. You’ll be late if you don’t go now.” She turned to leave again.
I watched her go for a moment before the click in my head gave me a kick in my pants and I ran after her. “Wait!” I called.
She stopped, turning around. She had a smile on her face again, a softer one than I had seen. A kind of amused look. “You’re going to be late,” she warned.
“Would you like to get a cup of coffee or something?” I asked, though it was a lot harder than the text implies.
She smiled again, even softer. “Are you sure?”
“No, but I’m getting this feeling that I shouldn’t let such a strong coincidence be wasted either.”
“Then I’d be happy to. Here.” She handed me a business card. “Meet me here at 6 tonight. We can have a drink instead.”
“Okay,” I said, taking the card. “I’ll, I’ll see you then.”
She was a mask of amusement and walked away.
“Wait…” I called.
“That’s three times you’ve asked me to wait,” she called back.
“What’s your name?” I shouted.
She spun, flashed a mischievous grin, and vanished into a blur of people, sun, shadows, and corporate art.
I just stood and stared after her.
Slowly my perplexity faded into calm amusement, followed by a slow budding, bubbling, subtle sense of happiness.
“Oh shit!” I took off running.
As predicted, I was late.
But I was not soaking wet.
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