midweek missed connections 1: church
You sat beside me yesterday at the Requiem Mass. You were tallish, your voice vaguely English, your shorts blue camo, white tshirt, sandals without socks. I was the young widow wearing black. We were only six in the Resurrection chapel; you took Communion grazing my elbow but never spoke. You seemed like a tourist, arriving late and dashing away after, but you knew the words to the creed (rite I) and to everything else except the special bits in the leaflet I held, trembling, to share with you.
You smelled nice – understated, classy aftershave – your voice a comforting baritone. Standing beside you, I imagined for the first time that there could be someone else for me, someone my age, fit, groomed but not fussy, who would drop into such an old-fashioned church and join such a service of a sunny Saturday noon. Was it chance, or were you mourning someone, too? A parent, a friend?
You had the air of ex-public school prefect, since deepened, opened, and made more humble by life. I’d like to see you in linen trousers, an open-necked shirt with the sleeves rolled up below the elbow, waiting on the porch, prepared to interview a tomboy in khaki shorts & scraped shins about where it is she’s been all day. Afterwards, we could concoct something in the kitchen with the strawberries that wanted eating.
Come back tomorrow for Mass at 11. Let me show you around town, and introduce you to…a couple of people.
Come write your own missed connection – real or fantasy, who will know? Post the link today (Wednesday) here or on Twitter (@caseydamnmorgan). What is Midweek Missed Connections?
Check out other missed connections this week:
July 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Well constructed tale. It was tamer than I was expecting, but the ending hints at more to come that will be less than tame. Good job!
July 9th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Nice, very understated. I think I was expecting something a little more bawdy as well, but this is nice.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
BTW – Blue camo? which theatre of operations would that be for? or did you mean something else other than camouflage, i.e. BDU’s?
cdm Reply:
July 9th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Tom, Thanks for showing us how they do it in LA.
You got me on the blue camouflage. If I had to guess, I’d say “Old Navy” theatre of operations, lol.
Y’all who expected more bawdiness, please note that the wicked schoolboys do not post missed connections… although now that I think of it…
July 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I can almost feel the flutter of hope in her stomach as he sang and felt his presence next to her.
A great read I look forward to more. This is going to be great fun!
July 9th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
BTW I modelled that on one I found on the first page of craigslist M.C. after you posted the challenge. Now to come up with something new – ah, that is the rub isnt it.
July 11th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Thanks for sharing this, Casey. That sense of longing…pent up behind not daring to speak, feels very real to me.
BTW, the US Air Force started using a blue camo pattern for their BDUs a few years ago. They aren’t “camouflage” in the sense of hiding against a suitably-colored background (the way shades of tan blend into desert, or shades of green blend into rainforest.) The idea is just that Air Force uniforms should be analogous to Army. I’ve seen them in DC, getting on the subway at Pentagon station.