It wasn't something that happens to extraordinary people unlike me; the phone rang and it was not for me, or so I thought. She was asking for someone with my last name but he wasn't me. We began to converse on the absurdities of life and wasn't it confusing how haphazard it could be.
One subject led to another and we began to ask each other more and more personal questions like how tall, what color of hair and eyes, what were our favorite foods, clothes, who we liked at the movies, and so on, so forth, ad infinitum. An attraction, on my part, began to build during this per telephone encounter of an intimate desire. Toward the end of the second hour, she was sorry she had to hang up, not allowing me the privilege of her phone number but leaving a promise to call yet again. Good-bye, click.
Oh, what wonders, what thoughts coursed through my being that evening as I lay in bed alone contemplating who and what the entity at the other end of my telephone line was like! Would she really call again or had she been a terribly polite person whose only wish for nearly two hours had been to find the end of this communication and never dial that particular combination of numbers again? I did not know but surely I must have made a good enough impression for her to have spoken to me for, what was it, one hour and fifty-eight minutes, more or less?
It was no use trying to sleep right away. Every time I closed my eyes, pictures of how she might look danced on the insides of my eyelids. Perhaps that sultry voice passed through liquid ruby lips that bespoke of an ancient beauty and love that only Antony could have known from Cleopatra. Perhaps her eyes were large and almond-shaped; dark mysteries which allowed few, if any, of their secrets to light. Perhaps her hair - long and flowing silken, ebony tresses - perfectly contrasted against the clear, unblemished white of her almost heart-shaped face. Perhaps her small, lithe body contained a magnificent collection of curves that alluded to such depths and heights wherein the promise of ecstasy outweighed the danger of failure. Perhaps…perhaps.
With these thoughts taking me hostage, I fell into an intoxicated sleep. I dreamed, oh how I dreamed! A faint murmur greeted my dream ears as I floated painlessly through fleecy, pink dream stuff. Through the cotton candy haze, from what I could see of her sitting profile; I saw the one I had sought for so long. My dream girl (Woman?). She was playing some sort of stringed, musical instrument similar to the ancient Greeks' lyre but this one was heart-shaped and had two large, dark eyes, half closed as if entranced, at its base. Its strings, upon closer inspection, were shiny, dark ebony hair. Her hair!
She was sitting sideways with her head bent down over the instrument partly because she was intent on playing the melodious tune; partly because her hair lent the lyre its strings. As I approached her, the lyres' eyes opened wide and turned to look in my direction. Then they closed and began to vanish, fading with the lyre in Cheshire Cat fashion, until only the strings were visible, and these slowly relaxed from the tension of having been a lyres' set of strings. She turned to face me as I held my dream breath. It was the girl from the telephone call, just as I had imagined her only more vivid; more exhilaratingly sensuous in a semitransparent toga of ancient Greek origin. She slowly glided, arms upheld, toward me with her lips slightly parted and a longing of timeless desire shimmering in her coal black eyes. She looked so tiny; so fragile. I knew she wanted me close to her but I felt, if I were to hold her, it would be like embracing a soap bubble; a beautifully fragrant soap bubble. Just before she reached me, the dream popped into nonexistence.
I awoke to find my arms extended out, attempting to embrace the air. The phone was ringing, apparently for the second or third time. I numbly reached over (after putting my arms down) and hoarsely spoke into the receiver, “Hello?”
“This is a pre-recorded message to inform you that we have the best insurance for you and your loved ones. If you act now, we can offer a 15% reduction off our regular rates to insure your house, your car, and your entire family, including the family pet. For only…click.” I groggily got out of bed and put my robe and slippers on, preparing for the morning ritual of coffee, the morning newspaper, and an in-depth philosophical research of the daily question, “What will I do today?”
