The Day Love Rounded the Corner
A quirky tale of the girl who fell.
I have this gut feeling that I would recognize you the moment I see you. But on the day that you rounded the corner, you barely look like love.
I am a sucker for chances, fate, soulmates, shooting stars, wishing wells and four-leaf clovers. I am stuck in my own idiosyncratic belief that love existed in a faraway place. Whoever love is, he’s set and bound for me.
Maybe love is standing parallel to where I am. Maybe love is thinking the same things that I think or reading the same books that I read. Maybe love’s name started with a letter M or a letter A. Maybe love’s personality type is an ISTP or an ISFP. Maybe love’s favorite drink is tea or a cup of dark roast coffee. Either way, I would know love when I see him.
I was sitting outside of an ice cream parlor waiting for my best friend Terry. I kept on glancing at the pink grandfather clock displayed on the store’s pastel-colored wall. It has been ten minutes since Terry texted me that she’s on her way but it seems like the way is not on her so I ordered myself a butter pecan caramel ice cream to at least keep me from killing myself out of boredom.
I was staring blankly at a haberdashery store across the road but I couldn’t see right through because of the ray of light hitting the store’s glass windows thus blinding my view of the inside. Faintly, I heard the door chimed and this peculiar looking man emerged from the store.
He wore a pinwheel suit like that of Elvis Presley's!
I nearly choke on my ice cream when I saw him. He wore a funny looking jumpsuit with sparkling sequins and silver beads on ’em. He wore a black hat and he was carrying a black leather satchel and a black crooked cane. If he’s a lead actor in a comedy show, it would be called “The Funny Guy in Black or Something Like That.” And if I’m seated on my living room and he’s on my TV screen, I would knock my chair off laughing. He looks downright ridiculous! I could’ve sworn this guy is hysterical.
He was standing outside the store basking on his magnificent glory as people stared at him in utter disbelief. I kept my eye on him intently until some yellow shirt-wearing, curly-haired tan girl stood in front of me blocking my view.
“Sorry I am so so late chica! You know I’ve got so many papeles to take care of for papá’s negocio.” She said kissing me on both cheeks. Terry is Hispanic so she talks like that.
“¿Qué pasa?”(What’s up?) I ignored her because I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the funny looking guy in black. “What are you looking at?” I motioned to her back.
All of a sudden, the guy started dancing. And I heard a long and galling “oooooh” from Terry. “Increíble!” Terry started cheering and clapping which caught the funny guy’s attention. He looked at us. He looked at me. Then he continued dancing goofily as the crowd of people gathered around him.
Weirdly, I was caught in a stupor when our eyes met. It was like a chunk of cookie was stuck in my gullet and it’s suddenly hard to swallow. He continued dancing, making quirky moves like Chaplin, and playing tricks with his hat and his cane and his black leather satchel, then juggling all of the three. He was funny. I was entertained. But for once, the thought that this guy is love, or could be love never crossed my mind. Like ever.
He was outside the perimeter of my lovemap.
He started walking towards us and I was not a bit nervous. I was throwing my head back laughing, participating in the fun that he brought. Then suddenly, Terry elbowed me in the stomach. “Oooooh, he’s into you chica!”
I continued laughing but my laugh fades slowly when Terry’s irritating cheer is all that I could hear.
“He’s into you chica!”
“He’s into you chica!”
“He’s into you chica!”
You know I’m a nervous girl. Please stop brainwashing me that he’s into me because I’m a nervous sensitive person and I feel like I’m starting to believe that his eyes are saying the same. He’s into me.
Sorcery or illusion, he pulled his hat off, twirled his cane and throw his bag then a daisy came out of his hand, and handed it to me. “Uh, it was supposed to be a rose but roses are overrated.” He said.
Sorcery or illusion, my heart started playing hopscotch. Skipping beat, after beat after beat. That was how we met. Love rounded the corner, barely looking like one. I was Tiana, he was the frog prince. He was love. That was love, but it wasn’t meant to be that way. Forever.
That day, love rounded the corner to meet me. And then some other day, love rounded the corner to leave me. Love comes, love goes. But there’s no reason to be hard against it. Let it come, let it flow and let it go like a river. You know there’s a character named Rosalind from the book that I’ve read This Side of Paradise, who’ve read a poem somewhere from a poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, that says:
“For this is wisdom, to love and live. To take what fate or the Gods may give. To ask no question, to make no prayer. To kiss the lips and caress the hair. Speed passions ebb as we greet its flow. To have and to hold and in time, let go.”
Maybe I am love to somebody else or maybe I am not. Maybe when I rounded that corner, love’s going to bump into me or another way around. He might not look like love, but who knows maybe he’s love. After all, you never really know whether you love the right person or the wrong one unless first, you love.
