Forever and Ever and Ever
.
In a late-night parking lot, across the street
from the local bar, an eleven year old boy
sat behind the steering wheel of his parents car.
His mother had turned the heater on to
keep him warm, while his father made an
amusing song and dance routine out of
trying to tune the radio into the game;
assuaging his guilt by promising to return
with a big bag of chips and lemonade.
Then they were gone.
The boy sat, looking out of the window,
watching a Korean man turn off the lights,
lock the door and roll down the security
gates of the video store. In the supermarket,
he saw a young Latino, listening to music,
while he filled shelves with boxes of cereal.
The dry cleaners was already closed, but he
could see the figure of a man, in the back,
still working. In the window of the diner,
two men ate alone at separate tables and the
boy wondered why they didn’t sit together.
On the other side of the car, he could see the
lights of an apartment building; reminding
him of an advent calendar - which made
him think of Christmas.
And then it began to rain; and then it poured.
Inside the diner, the two men turned to look
out of the large picture window; a waitress
stood between them, holding a coffee pot,
and staring up at the sky.
The man, in the back of the dry cleaners,
had come to the front of the store, holding
an armful of shirts, talking to someone on
the phone; the young Latino in the supermarket,
was leaning up against the glass with his
hands cupped around his eyes to better see.
Meanwhile, high above the parking lot,
a sodium light bulb, which up until now had
been keeping an eye on the proceedings,
flickered its discontent.
It was then that the boy saw the girl’s face;
she was sitting in the rear window of a white
car - barely visible through the rain.
The street light flickered again; the boy turned
the radio dial until he found music.
When he looked for her again, he lost her
in the mist of condensation.
Too small to lean over the steering wheel,
he slid across the bench seat and with the
palm of his hand, wiped away some of the
moisture. The car was still there, but he
could no longer see the girl.
At first, he thought she was gone or that
she might be hiding, but then, just as the
condensation began to return, he saw
the love heart she had drawn with her
finger on the window.
