He looked up and smiled touched his lips. He remembered the first time when he saw her. She walked across the grounds of his beloved school. Her long hair was dancing around her face. Her white summer dress flue around her legs. He was ready to move to a seminary. He was ready to be a priest. But she changed his life, she made him forget about God, the seminary, the priesthood, about everything. She made him forget about an abusive father and a condescending brother. She made him forget that anything else other than her existed in this world.
How strange, he was preparing to be a priest all his life. He knew the Bible from the beginning to the end. He would quote any chapter and verse if you asked him even in the middle of the night. He was ready.
She did not look at him, she did not smile, she just walked across the grounds with the purposeful stride. She had a large book in her hands, but it did not slow her stride. She approached the corner of the building and continued to walk. He no longer was able to see her.
He began following her, she became his Ariadne's thread. He turned around the corner and saw her entering the administration offices. He followed her.
"Jed, what do you need?" Asked Mrs. Landingham.
"What?" He looked at her, "Dolores, did you see the girl that just came here?"
"What girl?"
"I don't know. I never saw her before. Long brown hair white summer dress, she was carrying a large book?"
"Yes, I saw her. She had an appointment with Mr. Ryan."
After thanking her, he walked to Mr. Ryan's office and began to wait next to it.
He waited over half-an-hour. All this time, Mrs. Landingham and other people in the office looked at him and smiled. He did not understand why everyone was smiling. Many years later, Mrs. Landingham told him that everyone saw that he was smitten with the girl. The young "priest" did not look like a priest, he looked like a young man head-over-heels in love with a woman.
When she exited the office, he tried to talk to her, but Mr. Ryan walked her to the door and confirmed again something that they were talking about in the office. When she left, he almost tripped over his own feet trying to catch up to her. It took him at least three meetings to finally get her attention. She was dating some guy, and to get close to her, he befriended him. "Skippy" was an intelligent guy, but he did not see that he was pushed out from the girl's life by his new "friend". When "Skippy" understood it, it was late. She was engaged to the priest-wannabe.
He continued to look at her. She was talking to their grandchildren. He remembered when their daughters were born, he remembered their weddings, he remembered the birth of their grandchildren. But after fifty years of marriage, he looked at her and did not see the grey hair, or crowfeet and laugh marks on her face. He saw that young girl with long brown hair wearing a white summer dress purposefully walking across the schoolyard.