MANO A WOMANO, PART ONE
The first part in
a Marc Arboreal Miniseries
After a lot of hand-wringing and internal
debate about societal norms, I brought myself to call her. Maybe
you’ll think this was forward of me – we hadn’t even met, after
all. But from the first moment I saw her I couldn’t get her
out of my mind. God, that sounds corny.
She was lacing up her boot for a soccer
game; my roommate, Carrie, was also on the team. There’s never
been anything going on between me and Carrie, if you were wondering.
We’re just roommates. But I saw this girl – she had the
muscular set of legs you’d expect from an athlete, a proboscis
retroussé with a tiny Roman bump, sandy blonde hair,
and a no-nonsense attitude.
I watched that whole game, and I’m
not even really fond of soccer. By eavesdropping, so to speak,
on the cheering crowd I determined that her first name was Angie.
By subtly wandering by the coach’s roster on the bench I determined
that her last name was Brown.
Angie Brown.
From there, it was a hopskipandjump
to get her number from the campus switchboard. I sat up at night
with that number, staring at it, wrestling with my thoughts
and nerves. Finally, I dialed:
“Hello?”
“Hi, Angie. Sorry to call out of the
blue like this, but my name’s Bill and I watched your soccer
game the other day. I’d really like to meet you sometime, if
you’re interested.” My heart froze mid-thump and I waited.
“I think you’ve got the wrong number.
My name’s Carla.”
I had had a feeling she might say
something like that. “I had a feeling you might say something
like that,” I said, “and I know it’s pretty awkward, but I just
want to get to know you. I’m not trying to pressure you or anything.
If you want to think about it awhile, I’ll call back.”
She didn’t say a word; she didn’t
have to. The gentle click of the handset assured me that she
had taken my words to heart.
Now I had to collect my thoughts for
Round Two.
Editor’s Note: If you’ve read that one
story by Ian Frazier, “Mano a Womano” might strike you as a
little similar. To you we wish to say two things: 1) The present
story has only just begun, and is really quite heartwarming
and original when all’s said and done; and 2) Reading with a
constant eye out for where a certain plot point or character
might have been ripped off from is not much fun; certain dramatic
and comedic situations merit numerous effective renderings,
and we think you’ll like this one just fine.
- Marc Arboreal
