You Just Never Know.

I stopped beside her at the light.

Her eyes met mine just as I was smiling at a comment heard on a radio talk show.

She smiled back. My heart raced for an instant. Both of us turned to see the light go green.

I let her go first. I needed to evaluate the experience more closely, check out her car, memorize her plate number, take note of objects in the rear deck, whitewalls or black, spinners or factory wheel covers- thank God there were no bumper stickers.

You just don’t know who you are making eye contact with these days.

She could be anything.

Yeah, she was beautiful alright,

Nice teeth, sweet smile, but who was she really?

Obviously someone’s daughter.

A sister, a wife, a celebrity, a man-eater? Of those I was unsure. Was her picture adorning the wall of some obscure post office, or her face on a milk carton along with her abducted child at the local Kroger store?

You just don’t know who you are making eye contact with these days.

I found myself sitting adjacent her once more at the next traffic light.

I began to look down at my lap as if I had dropped something.

I managed to catch quick glimpses of her that she did not see.

She was looking at her lap as well, fumbling with something unseen, stealing second looks just as I.

I stopped fumbling and looked into her face. She did likewise.

We smiled at one another again, our faces flushed with embarrassment. We realized that our thoughts were one, our anticipations the same.

Suddenly a man crossed in front of us on the crosswalk. We both looked down as he glared into our cars, nearly making eye contact. He passed quickly, the light changed and we drove on, side by side. Looking into our rear view mirror’s we seemed to sigh a relief at the same time as the man reached the curb, looking back at us, checking out our cars, memorizing plate numbers, noting objects in rear windows.

You just never know who you are making eye contact with these days!

John Malcolm Pouch, 2005