moments in a day of spelling and chai and authors.
both of us engrossed in our own headphones and words running across pages...
a guy, sweet smile and clumsy hands, comes up to us.
"excuse me?"
i take of my headphones and look to explorer. i look back at him.
"yes?"
"could i bother you for the spelling of a word? i'm a really bad speller."
"sure."
"could you spell 'tomorrow' for me?"
i spell it for him, and he gives a gracious "thank you" as he walks back to his table.
explorer and i look at each other because tomorrow has been a touchy subject with both of us lately.
i escape back into the streets of new york and her into her philosophy.
a few minutes later...
"could i bother you for one more word."
we all smile.
"no problem," explorer says. i just nod.
"rustle? like leaves rustling."
explorer spells it for him. and we get another "thank you." she and i talk for a moment about how good moments like this are.
i leave shortly after to go get flowers with rockstar and desert person.
after i leave, apparently, he saw one of my books sitting on the table where i was sitting and started talking to explorer about tom robbins.
"he's one of my roommate's favorite authors; you'll have to talk to her."
"i tried reading one of his books once, but something he wrote emotionally offended me and so i had to put it back. i'd like to try again. there was something about a car turning into a turkey."
and as explorer told me this, i just laughed as she explained how his face lit up. she told him to try reading tom robbins again. and he said it was nice meeting both of us. and neither one of us had thought about how it is to start a conversation without preconceived notions in a long time.
