I never caught his name. I never asked, but we did talk about things briefly. We both came to the conclusion that our paths had crossed and the crossed big time. We had one common factor…Ed. He told me the way Ed had changed. In real life, I have not seen him in many years. He told me that Ed was very focused on work and not much else. He had little contact with Ed, but said that at this very moment, they were in the same town. I did not know what town we were in, but it had to be somewhere near a military base. This guy was in the military. By the look of his clothing I would assume he was in the Army. I don’t even know where it was that we were talking, but the image on my mind now is a patio table outside a cafe. It wasn’t a date, it was a happening. It was just something that happened, a meeting without planning.

 Upon further conversation we realized it was getting late, but we still wanted to talk more. So we decided to make way to the base which was walking distance from the cafe. it was nice to talk to him about a person he was related to. but knew little about. We were both thrilled to learn new and different things about the person we both had in common. We talked all the way to his barracks. When we got there, it looked more like a boot camp situation with bunk beds. There were not a lot of other people there, but those that were, were in bed. Some sleeping, some reading, some on their laptops, and some just staring up towards the ceiling.

 Ed’s “brother” had an empty bunk. So he climbed up to the top bunk and I sat on the bottom bunk. We talked into the wee hours of the night without anyone else paying attention to us. Until… some annoying jerk in the top bunk across from us pulled out his pack and tossed Ed’s “brother” a condom. We were both rather offended and made the comment that if we did do anything Ed would be pissed. The thought was not even in our realm of thought. Ed’s brother threw the condom back and told his “friend” that it wasn’t needed. So then his friend threw him two. Ed’s brother just ripped the package open and put the condoms on the end of a sculpted candle. His friend asked him why he had done that. Ed’s brother just turned and sunk down into is bunk. I glared at his friend and he sunk back into his bunk. I saw a head peek down unto the bunk I was on and Ed’s brother said sorry. It wasn’t his fault.

 I assumed that it was the next day and some time had passed. I met up with Ed and his brother and by the look of things, it wan’t going very swimingly. Ed seemed angered to the point of getting up and leaving. But, when he caught sight of me, he sat back down. I could only assume that his brother had mentioned me and then the questions started looming. I was happy to see both of the “boys” and really just wanted to sit down and drink something. At least that would give me something to do while I fidgeted. I never uttered a word. Still much time had passed and Ed got up and left to get on a train. He muttered something that I couldn’t quite understand, but i felt the emotion of the words. They were words of caution and sadness directed to his brother. His brother seemed a bit offendedand/or confused. In my heart I felt empty and just sat at the cafe table drinking my drink, but wanting to get up. I watched as Ed got on the train…Then I woke up…

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia