What kind of man misunderstands

A woman like you?

~Mission Bells, Matt Nathanson

There's nothing much to say about the flight. They took off, with minor turbulence, neither Richard or Raven seemed to mind it. They made small talk for about twenty or so minutes into the flight. At some point during the lull in the conversation Richard decided to get up and excuse himself and went to use the facilities.

He still couldn't fathom how easily a woman like that could just walk into his life. Although Raven wasn't a huge talker, she was polite. And beautiful. Incredibly beautiful.

She didn't seem to hate talking to Richard, but it was hard to tell if she was really enjoying the conversation. They hadn't talked about anything that serious. All he had learned about her was that she had been to San Francisco before, but he didn't know if she lived there or was just visiting. He also gathered that she knew a few people from the city, but didn't know if they were family, just friends or something else entirely.

In fact it seemed that every time Richard asked her a question, she politely answered it, but that's all she really did. She never told him more than he asked for just kept to the basic question. He could tell she was the quieter type, her shy demeanor screamed it. She was a gentle type of person. Something about her mannerisms just told him that whatever she did, she did with the utmost care and precision.

As Richard got back towards his seat he could see that Raven had pulled out a book. And not just any book, he couldn't see the title of it but he could see the girth of it. The book was huge. He wondered how she had even got it through security.

When Richard's steps became more audible, Raven looked up and moved into the aisle, to let him pass.

"What are you reading?" Richard asked, he didn't want the conversation with Raven to end. Even though he knew that she probably wouldn't want to talk all through the seven-hour flight, he wanted to talk to her for as long as he could. He didn't know if he would even see her after this.

Raven looked up at him, her dark lashes shielding a good portion of her eyes from him. She looked back down at her book, as if she forgot it was even there. After a moment she adjusted the book, a worn looking novel that had lost it's jacket a long time ago.

"Oh, it's Austen, Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice."

Delighted to recognize the title, and have something to say about it Richard quickly spoke up she might open the tome back up and end the conversation.

"Ah, I think my sister read that one in school. She wasn't a big fan of it. Probably never even finished it. I think she kept complaining about the characters, called them 'way to two dimensional' or something. Are you liking it so far?"

The look on Raven's face was a bit peculiar. Richard had quickly come to realize that she expressed a lot of her emotions through her face, rather than her voice. Her tone almost never changed from topic to topic.

But this time her voice did shift, though only slightly. It sounded almost offended. "I've read it before. It's one of my favorites actually. The characters are brilliant, some of the most realistic and complex one's you'll see in a book. You can find that type of depth in a book written today. I guess everything that makes a brilliant work of literature brilliant is just lost on the younger generations."

Richard was a bit taken aback. He wasn't expecting that response to come out of Rave. And the passion she had, who knew it could only be awakened by books.

"I never actually read it myself. My siblings aren't really reliable sources for anything. It probably is a great book. I'll have to pick a copy up sometime. What's it about?"

"It's about a young woman, her family and social standings. And it's about her pride, and her prejudices" Raven answered in her regular quiet voice. She still looked interested in the conversation, but kept shooting little wistful glances back at the book on her lap.

"Really, Pride and Prejudice is about a young woman with some pride and a bit of prejudice? I never would have guessed." He added a wry smile at the end to show he was joking, at least a little bit.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you really have to read the book to get the whole effect of it. You can't just ask someone to explain it to you; you can't even read one of those summaries on the Internet. Books are something you have to experience. How can you have Pride and Prejudice without the beautifully long sentences, the overly descriptive descriptions, or the amazingly heated dialogue? And the characters…you need to read it to be in that world. To fall in love with that world."

Suddenly Richard felt cruel about interrupting Raven's reading. With the passion that she talked about it, you could see that books where something almost magical to her. They brought her away. They gave her meaning, another life.

"I'll let you get back to your book then."

Raven sighed and looked away "I apologize if I came off as rude, talking to you has been nice. This whole trip has just been so tiring."

"I take no offense. I have some work I should be catching up on anyways. And there's nine hours left; plenty of time to talk."

Raven picked up her book again, casting Richard what was probably her version of an apologetic smile. It was tiny, if he blinked, he would have completely missed it.

"Enjoy your book, Raven"