Warning: This story contains themes of a spiritual nature.
So, it was December 15th and I was on my way to work at about 9am. To get to work, I take a 15 minute express train, The Purple Line, and transfer to The Red Line for a few stops after that. So I board the Purple Line and there are only open seats next to other people. I choose a seat next to an older woman, and to be polite (so she doesn't think I'm some strange guy), I ask her if it's okay if I sit there. She says it's okay, and those are about the only words we'll say to each other. For a while, I sit staring straight ahead. Out of the corner of my eye, I see this woman on my right doing something. I glance over and realize that she's praying the rosary. The ROSARY!!! I am a pretty religious Catholic. I attend mass once a week. I begin to realize that I must be pretty lucky--of all the people I COULD have sat next to, I chose to sit next to the woman who's praying the rosary. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I feel this tingling sensation from head to toe on the right side of my body. I don't know what it was, but I assumed (and still believe) that the woman next to me was praying for me and sending good "vibes" my way. I probably looked crazy as I sat there smiling, but I couldn't help it; I was sitting next to an angel! When the train reaches its stop, the woman with the rosary gets up to leave. Before she leaves, she turns to me and says, "Have a nice day." Can you believe it? We hadn't been having a conversation. All I did was ask if it was okay if I sat next to her! So I say back to her, "Merry Christmas!" and she replies, "Merry Christmas to you too." I couldn't believe how wonderful I felt at that very moment. I was on top of the world.
A few stops later, I get off the train to transfer to the Red Line. As I'm waiting on the platform with my Batman lunchbox (yes, I have a Batman lunchbox), this stunningly beautiful girl
suddenly just shows up next to me. She's talking on the phone and we both go about our business. As the train arrives, I gesture for her to go in ahead of me and we board. We're standing in the aisle (this time there were no seats available) and in relative silence. Soon enough, she hangs up the phone. A moment later, I hear "That's a nice lunchbox you've got there." What? Is she talking to me? She is! So I thank her for her compliment and decide that no further eye contact is necessary. I continue to avert my gaze, but as I do, I keep thinking, "Have I seen this girl somewhere before?" I try to catch a quick glimpse, and when I do, her eyes meet mine. To excuse myself, I tell her that she looks very familiar to me. She replies that she thought the same about me! So we start to talking, trying to figure out where we might know each other. As it turns out, she works in the same building as I do, on the 11th floor, and she lives in the same suburb as I do, too! She tells me that she is an advisor for graduate students and that she's got friends visiting her from out of town later that night. The night before, she says, she had some of her laundry stolen from the laundromat across from her house. (She was washing linens for her guests, but I'm not sure that's important to the story.)
The train stops and we exit together and continue to walk to work. We, in fact, enter the building from different doorways only about 20 feet apart, so I walk her to hers and say, "I'm Dan, by the way." Her name, she tells me, is Sarah. I invite her to stop by anytime and she says she will.
The entire day I can't get this out of my head. Was this a coincidence that I should happen to be on the same train with this woman and that she should happen to talk to me? It couldn't possibly be. After all, we both recognized each other. Was this some sort of "fateful" meeting? I was convinced that I was meant to meet her that very day, for some reason or another. But I couldn't leave another meeting to chance. Over the course of the day, I finally decide to buy four cupcakes and deliver them to her when I got off from work, for her and her guests that evening. I buy the cupcakes (from my own store) and go next door. I would have needed an employee ID to get onto the elevator, but I explained to the security guard that I was delivering cupcakes to someone named "Sarah" who was a "graduate advisor" and asked if he could direct me to her office. I was told there were advisors on the 6th floor, so he let me in and up I went. When I arrived at the 6th floor, I could immediately tell I was in the wrong department, so I asked the receptionist where I could find the graduate advisors, particularly one named "Sarah". She asked me what this was about. Of course, I couldn't say "she might be the woman I was meant to spend the rest of my life with"; I would have sounded like a nut! So I just kind of stuttered and said, "I have these cupcakes" or something. I was then directed to the 8th floor. Now, as I get on the elevator again, I have this sick feeling as if Sarah will be on the elevator going down as I'm going up and we'll miss each other. But I step off at the 8th floor and ask again for "Sarah" the "graduate advisor". Finally, someone who knows who I'm talking about! So I'm told she will be coming down to pick up some boxes later, but that she works on the 11th floor. Again, I was in luck! She clearly hadn't left because she hadn't picked up the boxes (if this was even the same "Sarah"). Once again I step onto the elevator, step off on the 11th floor, and ask the receptionist if she knows where I can find "Sarah". She directs me to the end of the hall, on the left and so I go...and there she is! Even more beautiful than she was first thing in the morning. She's got a see-through glass door, and it's mostly open, but I knock on the doorframe anyway. She turns and smiles generically. Once she realizes who I am, the generic smile becomes more genuine and she greets me. I tell her that I heard she had had a bad evening and was having guests over, so I brought her the cupcakes. She hugged me! That morning we were strangers, and now she's hugging me! I didn't say much after that, just to invite her to stop by sometime to which she replied, "I'll be by." And I left, happy as can be!
On the way home, I stepped off of the Red Line and back on the Purple. As soon as I did, I looked and who did I see, already seated? It was the older woman who was praying the rosary! We didn't speak, but she did look up at me, smiled, and just sort of nodded as if to say, "You're welcome!" At this point, I am absolutely CONVINCED that the days events were set in motion by a higher power. It was Christmastime so I began telling everyone the story of the Christmas Angel and the events of that day. Unbelievable!
So the school that Sarah works for went on Christmas break for a month and I didn't see her at all, not even in passing. In January, on a Friday after school was back in session, I came into town on my day off to pick up my paycheck and guess where I went? That's right, right up to the 11th floor to ask Sarah out to lunch. She turned me down, claiming she couldn't take a lunch break that day for all the work she had to do. I suggested maybe another time, or perhaps dinner. She replied, "We'll see." I know when I'm being rejected, but I left happy with myself for at least taking the chance. And as I shared the story of the day with some of my female friends, they began to point out things to me. Sarah had mentioned that we were both wearing the same color of shirt. She had said a couple of other things and had made physical contact a few times. Maybe things weren't all lost after all! I got my hopes up.
Days past and I didn't see her. Once I saw her pass the store and she didn't even look in the window...and it seemed a deliberate snub! Another time she walked by, looked in, saw me, I waved, she waved back, and she continued walking. But she had said nothing to me since, "We'll see." I had given up all hope that we were "meant to be", as it were. (At this point, any approach would make me "that weird guy that works next door who keeps asking me out".) I forgot all about her.
Then came yesterday. My schedule has been so different that I never ride the early morning train. Today though, instead of being much later, I was about 2 hours earlier! When I sat down on the train, I noticed the woman sitting perpendicularly in front of me was reading the Bible. Immediately, I remembered December 15th and Sarah and the woman praying the rosary. It occurs to me that maybe I really blew my chances and I begin to pray. "Please, Lord. All I ask is for one more chance. Give me one more chance and give me the strength and courage to make the most of it." This time, I exit the train and the woman with the Bible and I have no words. I transfer to the Red Line and arrive at work with no sign of Sarah. I attend my mandatory 8 am meeting and it ends at about 9:30; about the same time as I arrived at work on December 15th. I have an hour and a half to kill before I have to start my work shift, so I head past her office lobby doorway and into the tea shop on the corner. I'm there with a co-worker for awhile, maybe an hour, before I decide to head back to The Hershey Store. And as I walk those 4 store lengths, can you guess who I passed? Of course you can! It was Sarah! This was my second chance that I had prayed for! There was a woman with a bible and I was praying and, by God! (literally) my prayers were answered!! But I only say a little more than hello and we make small talk about my job for a second (and she touched my arm) before she says she's on her way to a meeting (along with the large group she was walking with). We part ways and I go into work. When I had a chance to think about it, I nearly kicked myself!! Here I was given a second chance, by GOD HIMSELF, and I did nothing with it! What's wrong with me?
Finally, at about 7pm, I leave work for the day and head back to the train. I walk down the steps to the platform and decide to keep walking down the platform. I NEVER do that! I just kept walking down the platform until I reach almost the other end. And can you guess who was there at 7 o'clock? Not the bible lady, or the rosary lady. It was Sarah! AGAIN! I couldn't believe my luck AGAIN!!! This time I see her standing and talking to some guy. Is this a co-worker? A friend of hers? It couldn't be a boyfriend, could it? I walk over and make eye contact, then gesture to my watch as if to say, "You're getting out awfully late, aren't you?" and she responded, "Yeah, I know. I worked late today," or something.
I didn't want to interrupt, so I decided to wait until this guy with her was out of the picture. All I really wanted to say was, "Look, I've already asked you out once and you turned me down so I'm not going to do that again. But I don't want to be that weird guy that you have to avoid eye contact with every time you walk by my store." Hopefully, that'd be enough of an icebreaker so that maybe we could have a conversation and agree to maybe get to know each other. So we get on the train again (I gesture again for the two of them to go ahead of me) and I begin to pray, again, that the Lord will give me courage to say this to her when this other guy leaves. And I prayed. And I prayed. Then he put his hand on her knee. And I prayed. And she took an iPod out of her bag and handed it to him to listen to. And again I prayed. And they gave each other a quick peck on the lips. And I realized that once again, my prayers have been answered. Not in the way I would have preferred, really, but I was definitely given an answer. Why else would we be on the same train at 7pm? Why else would I be compelled to walk down the platform, RIGHT INTO HER? This was God's way of telling me: You have your answer. Now move on.
And so I shall.
