Casablanca

It's raining lightly as our young hero steps out of the fossil-fuel powered automobile. He looks towards the heavens and they look back down silently watching him as he sparks up his smoke. Tis be a quiet movie weekend unlike the tomfoolery that the hero and his comrades indulged in the previous Saturday night.

As they head inside the theatre, our hero looks forward to observing two stalwarts, from the land of Hollywood, sparring with each other, their cinematic skills and thespian fortitude tested on a righteous mission. As they enter the waiting area, he heads off in search of something to eat. Walking away, he hears one of his mates say “Isn’t that…?” And the rest of it trails away out of earshot…

While deciding what fare to indulge in, Sir Madman walks to him and says, “Did you see the Damsel? Or did you purposely ignore her?” Puzzled he asks, “Damsel is here?!” and looks over the Madman’s shoulder and immediately spots her. He’d recognize that head of hair anywhere. Suddenly a variety of emotions – happiness followed by panic, followed by Be-Cool-Idiot followed by more panic, and he does the only thing his slightly dazed brain can do. A smile and a wave.
Damsel comes over, arms opens and a 7.5 second embrace follows. Awkward silence, as our hero pulls back pondering what he could/should possibly say to her…

Damsel: hi, how are you? You look like you’ve lost some weight…
(Translation – Greetings & Salutations! The black shirt and dark jeans possibly makes you look thinner but then it’s also been almost 3 months since we saw each other)

Hero (casually shrugging): Ehhh…
(Translation – hi yourself, its great to see you too. You still look fine... very fine! the same. In all this time, I kept wondering if we’d run into each other sometime… somewhere. It felt almost right that we did… here… a place we’ve come to many a time before. Perhaps you feel the same. How are you? Work keeping you busy these days…?! Glad to know that you have healed enough to put on your dancing shoes. Keep at it with your musical endeavors coz I know you have a wonderful sense of/for the music. Which reminds me, weren’t you planning to go abroad sometime now…)

The Miner walks in and greets the Damsel. Feels like old times. Everyone dressed in regulation Saturday night denim-and-black garb. For a few seconds we were the same group from not long ago who were going in together to watch a movie. After some more conversation and laughs, she heads off to her mates and we follow shortly after.

Once the movie ends, our hero wonders if he’ll see her once more as they leave. His mind is miles away as he stares blankly at the gate guard, ticket extended waiting to collect his flamethrower. He takes it, mentally now galaxies away, and ambles towards the escalator. As he half turns a hand sticks out, waving at him and he weaves around it and moves down, thinking, “Oops I almost bumped into someone there…”
Escalator moves down and he steps off.

*10000 Watt light bulb flashes overhead*
Trring trring… “Hi, sorry was that you who just waved out to me?” With indulgent (hopes our friend) humor in her voice, due confirmation of the same is conferred.

Stepping out, he sees its still drizzling about the same way it was while coming in. Some nicotine is desperately needed. Deep drag. Followed by a deeper drag... And he starts to follow his group back to their vehicle. He sees her walking ahead of him and catches up trying clumsily to explain himself. Realizing what transpired at the escalator could be mistaken for a frigid ignore, some apologetic words are mumbled by him. She smiles… he smiles. All is forgiven.
They walk separately but in the same direction. As he is about to board his transportation, some final words are spoken. Goodbyes are exchanged.

As the scenes from the evening play out in his mind, our protagonist feels something akin to calm settle over him. A seemingly scary situation settled itself fairly quietly in the end. Positive thoughts course through him for the rest of the ride home.

As someone once said, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine…”

Dont know about you Bogey, but I'm glad she did.