We Met by Marc Mascot
You just never know where circumstances might lead you, I love that about life.
I always tell Debbie, if there is an afterlife or something is looking down on us, how cool it must be to pick out 2 humans and follow their paths from children 'til that day when they first meet. Yeah sometimes I do have this mythical image of a couple of Angels, popcorn in hand, lying on their stomachs, watching down from the rim of a cloud for entertainment, as if our own lives play out in the traditional 2 hour movie format.
All the innocence, wonder and complete blind love we can have for each other must be great to see form a third party perspective. Especially when you have the privilege to have followed their lives up to that point, the point when they first meet. I can just see it …
Angel #1: Excited "This is it, the day when Debbie and Marc first
meet!" (As she checks her calendar) "I've been waiting 22 years for
this"
Angel #2: "Good God, (looking up) sorry but not another love story?
Can't we watch something a little more exciting today?"
Angel #1: (Eyebrows raised) "I had to watch your Hindenburg Crash,
World War One, not to mention World War Two lets see, umm about 10 TIMES, the
least you can do is sit and watch this with me, it's not like it's going to
kill you."
Angel #2: (Picking a mite from his wings) "Don't you ever get tired
of watching these humans? I mean, you know how it always ends up? Somebody gets
hurt, then the counseling, antidepressants, divorce, alimony, child support,
or a shirtless argument on Cops."
Angel #1: (Shoots back a stern look)
Angel #2: (Rolling eyes) "Ok, I'll put on some popcorn but if they
start slobbering over each other and do that tongue thing, it's off to the Action-cloud
for me."
Angel #1: (On her stomach like a kid watching a Saturday morning cartoon.
Chin nestled firmly in her hands, smile on her face and peering over the edge
of the cloud) "Nope, I think these two are going to be different"
(Her wings spread out and then slowly retract as if they where a cat stretching
to get comfortable)
Earth May 1985:
I had been seeing this girl…wait let me back up...
When I was a kid my mother new I loved puzzles, so one day she brought home a model kit form me to build, you know, chimp puts round peg in round hole now lets see if he can do this? Well after my first model building experience I was hooked, she couldn't buy them fast enough for me and to this day it is my one true vice. Yes I am a styrene and vinyl addict. (Most figure kits are made in vinyl). As I got older I met some friends that also shared my hobby and by the time the time the Star Wars craze hit we where jonesing for 2 kits a week.
One day, one of those friends suggested that we hop on bus, 2 transit buses no less (I hate public transit) and treck to this Hobby Shop 30 miles away. I was game and I needed kits. Eventually this turned into ritual we would do at least 3 times a month for the next 5 years.
We always ate at this Burger King after our Hobby Shop plunder to check our booty, on this day though, I would meet someone that would set me on a course that would change my life forever.
No it wasn't Debbie; it was another girl. Ahhh she was vision to behold, head shaved with died orange bangs, multiple holes in her ears, punk rock bracelets, I was smitten. Needless to say every time we went to this Burger King, I would get in her line and one day I brought her flowers and just walked away, she just stood there with her mouth open. The next time I went in she pulled me aside and not to really drag this part out but we started dating.
Over the course of the year that we went out I made a whole slew of new Punk
Rock friends. Some of her closest would take me aside and ask me why I was going
out with this girl. That she was kind of nuts and had some serious mental problems.
Our relationship had started to sour and I had seen some of these psycho episodes
flair up but what can I say I am incredibly blindly loyal. We had talked many
times about breaking up and then I was approached by one of her friends, Tim,
to start a band.
(Now it was 1985)
Tim was real cool and very talented; everyone liked him-- he just had one of those personalities. One time, while visiting my girlfriend Tim called and asked if I could stop off when I was done to just hang out for the evening. Well, the Devilgirl and I had just had a swell argument and I really wanted to go have some fun, so she offered to drive me over on her way to some function.
As we drove over to Tim's, I never would have thought that all this chaotic and total nonsense in my life would drastically change forever and take me on a path to the one person that would mean everything. In 10 minutes my life would never be the same. She would give me a purpose for living, give me someone to care about, answer all of my silly questions, bring me non-stop joy, love me for my faults, take care of me even when I didn't need it, make me laugh, make me cry, and above all, be the one and only person I would want to spend the rest of this thing called life with.
As I was dropped off, my girl Satan waited in the car and I knocked on the door. When it opened the most beautiful person I had ever seen was standing there. I must have let out a gasp. It was total love at first site I knew this was the one. "You aren't TIM." I said nervously. "No. Hi, I'm Debbie." I distinctly remember looking back at my then girlfriend and with a wave that took on more meaning than just the obvious gesture, said…
Goodbye.
That night we went out and I just couldn't believe what a warm and genuine person Deb was. She was real. There was nothing fake about her. I had never known anyone like this and oh my god she was so pretty. There was no way any girl like this would even look at a guy like me.
Late in the evening we ended up in a restaurant, I was so nervous sitting next to her but the more we talked the more I realized how much we had in common. Every sentence I spoke to her, in my head at least, ended with "How beautiful you are." When they dropped me off at my house, I had one of those feelings, that things had completely come unraveled. Time had stopped and I was on another track.
I was totally and for the first time in my life, genuinely in love. It turns out, for 3 months, unknown to each other, we had been telling a mutual friend how we both felt. Well, one night 3 months later at a party the mutual friend was fed up with the "do you think he-?""Do you think she-" babble from the both of us. He grabbed us by the hands, led us outside and said "Marc, Debbie likes you. Debbie, Marc likes you. Now will you both shut up?" With that, he spun around and went back into the party leaving us on the front lawn stunned.
We got into Debbie's car and for the next 3 hours just talked. At one point a cop knocked on the window to see what we where doing. I guess the party had got kind of loud and he just wanted to know if we where part of it. Honestly at that point we were so wrapped up in each other we really weren't. We were in our own little space and time, nestled in the comfort of a faded blue Ford Pinto. After the cop left a friend asked if we could drive him home, it must have been like 3 in the morning, I said sure and we took him home. We drove back up to her area and stayed up all night till the break of dawn just talking, I really wish I could remember those conversations.
In the end it took, my mother finding something for me to do, plastic model kits, 6 million bus rides, a psycho girlfriend, her friends, 3 months, a party, and a mutual friend to bring our lives together.
It was a long road but if I had to take it again I would.
In what used to be a small town close by my house, there was a store that my mom would always take me to buy those model kits, it turns out as a kid Deb lived in this town and would also go to this very same store. I wonder if we ever crossed paths? If we ever looked right at each other, not knowing some day, we would be together?
I guess only that Angel knows and I hope she likes the show so far.