Alone Together Alone

“Hold on one second!” A voice called back through the door.

That voice? Is that?

“Hello?” The door swung open revealing the beautiful woman from my dreams. Her eyes sparkled magnificently in the daylight.

That’s something I’d never seen before.

Once she registered who I was her face grew shocked. “Pete?” It was the very same voice.

She was the woman from the drug store too. I hadn’t been hearing things wrong that day.

“Yeah.” I said awkwardly figuring she knew me because of the band. “Would you happen to be Erin?”

“Yeah.” She replied leaning on the doorframe.

Her pale skin seemed almost translucent in the sunlight, you could see the subtle veins in her face.

“Well this is going to sound strange,” Way to introduce that one Pete, “But... umm... I’ve been having these weird dreams and you’re in them. Can I talk to you?”

She looked somewhat skeptical, and maybe a little disappointed. “Sure. I’ll meet you at the little restaurant around the corner.” She said vaguely and moved to go back inside.

I caught her arm before she went back in. “Wait which one?”

She laughed. “Sorry. The little Italian one it’s called Anthony’s or something.”

I was just thankful she was willing to talk to me and not completely freaked out by the whole situation.

I hopped back in my car and drove to Anthony’s and had only just been seated when she walked in.

She had changed clothes out of the grubby sweats she wore when she opened the door to tight black skinny jeans and a zebra print trench coat that hit just below her hips.

How’d she change clothes and get here so fast?

Watching her walk toward me reminded me of the dreams and how beautiful she was to me there.

I knew this was the woman for the drug store that day but looking at her now I had trouble believing that little girl in her arms was hers. Nothing about her screamed mother.

She looked young, trendy, and she was wearing combat boots.

As she got to the table she unbuttoned her coat and shrugged it off placing on the back of her chair as she moved to sit down. She moved so gracefully I couldn’t stop watching her.

The shirt she wore was electric purple. In all the dreams I’d never seen her out of black. The purple stood out beautifully on her pale skin.

Her skin didn’t look so strange now that we were out of the sun.

“Hi Pete.” She said as she sat down breaking me from my thoughts of her.

“Hi.” I responded almost shyly. I felt like she’d caught me thinking about how beautiful she was.

“This place always smells so good.” She mused lightly.

“It does smell really good.” Talking about the food was easier by far than trying to start the conversation about the dreams. “What’s good here?”

She froze for a minute in thought. She still hadn’t even touched the menu nor did she look like she planned on doing so. “I’m not sure. I haven’t eaten here since I was pregnant.”

I didn’t want her to know I saw her in the drug store the other day so I played like I didn’t know about the little girl with the big green eyes that she very obviously didn‘t get from her mother. “You have a baby?” I tried to sound as genuinely surprised as I can and it worked because as I said looking at her you’d never guess.

She smiled, that little girl was the light of her world. “Yeah a little girl named Madeline.”

“I hope Madeline’s dad doesn’t mind me bringing you here.” I was hoping the man didn’t exist honestly.

She laughed lightly but it was almost a sad laugh. “No Maddie’s dad doesn’t even know about her. He died.”

Again the word “died” ends up ringing in my head as though it were a message.

“I’m so sorry!” I can’t believe I brought up the dead father of her child way to go Pete!

“No it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Everything happens for a reason. He’s much better off now. It would be selfish not to think so. I do wish he was back all the time.” She let out another sad laugh. “I guess everyone’s a little selfish.”

I was taken off guard by how easily this woman spoke about a man she obviously loved to me, a total stranger.

“You seem like the most selfless person I’ve ever met.” I didn’t even know about those words until they passed my lips. I didn’t will my mouth to speak them but it still did.

This time she laughed with no tragedy hidden beneath the surface. “If you only knew.” She trailed off then dug into her purse. “Would you like to see a picture of Maddie?” Her real excitement was back.

“Of course.” I smiled politely back.

She whipped out several pictures from her wallet.

“That’s Madeline at three months.” She said as she handed me the first picture.

“She had so much hair!” I commented as I looked at the little girl who had dark little curls even in the photograph from so long ago. “How old is she now?” I handed her back the first picture.

“Thirteen months.” She responded back as she took the picture back and handed me another. “That was her on her birthday a month ago.”

“She‘s going to be a little heartbreaker one day.” That picture had the little girl I saw in that store. “What color were her father’s eyes?” I couldn‘t stop my curiosity.

Her voice didn’t waver and she looked right into my eyes. “The same as yours.”