Tuesday, April 30, 2013

If I wrote a song, she'd know every single word

Some days were better than others, but most days there was a lot of smiles and tenderness.

The way she'd look at him sideways from her mic, him positioned at his mic.  The moments when they'd just dance before the show.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Those were the moments they'd remember.  Setting up, wiggling their hips, carrying the gear into the venue.  She was always smiling.  Sure, there were layers of hurt and bitterness.  But she was unfailingly optimistic, convinced she could charm everyone she came into contact with.  She usually did.

Life is what happens while you are making other plans.  All those moments of rehearsals, waiting around.  As if she was always performing for JUST HIM.  She'd sometimes talk about her "Imaginary Lawyer Boyfriend".

"I can just see him now.  He'll be easy to get along with and buy me things and have intellectual discussions with me.  We'll have a sort of banter that will challenge each other's minds.  And then it will make us all hot in bed.  And I'll end up winning every argument"
"Why? Cause you are the one with the pussy?"
"Yep! And cause I'm real smart!"
"and he'll love that you are smarter than he is"
"Yep.  Right up until the day he has his mid life crisis or is crippled by insecurity.  And finds a girl dumber than he is by multitudes.  And then he'll think, 'She's so easy to get along with,' and we'll get a messy divorce and I'll drink myself into oblivion, wondering where I went wrong and why that bastard isn't with me anymore,"
"Seems like you could save yourself a whole mess of trouble if'n you stayed right where you is"

Suddenly, the years of being single, or singing to herself, of having fun without a significant other or an anniversary, all the empty years when she was accountable to no one but herself seemed full after all.  These years with him, these years without him.  No wedding dance, no books of memories.  Just years of being in the moment.  And some pictures.  The picture of them dancing in the distance at sunset.  Sun on their faces, laughing.  Only slightly awkward in each other's arms.

Somedays she wondered if they were each other's imaginary lovers, brought into being through vivid imagination. Thinking about it made her believe she'd break the spell and disappear into thin air.

* Big Ole Goofy World by John Prine

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