Bathroom Break Interrupted

A guy hurried past my table as I was signing stock for a bookstore event that had just finished.



(Whoa, I wrote that like I'm telling a joke. I'm not. This happened yesterday. Promise.)



He was on his way to the bathroom.



(I'm not making that up, either.)



He was tall, and had dark, up-combed hair with a wide blonde streak. The fingernails on one hand were painted black. The others were not.



Interrupting his beeline toward the back of the store, he came skidding to a halt in front of my table.



Then he just stared at me.



"Hi?" I said with a little wave.



"Are you...?" he asked, looking at all the evidence on the table. "OH MY GOD! You're the Sammy Keyes lady?"



"I am."



"You came to my school when I was in FOURTH GRADE. I loved these books! And you sang a song....?"



Painted nails snapped as he tried to remember.



So I helped him out, "Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy..."


"YES! OH MY GOD! THAT SONG WAS STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR YEARS! I'm an ENGLISH MAJOR now!"



(He was not hard of hearing, he was just...excited.)



"I really gotta go," he said, obviously swimming. But as he started away, he said, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S YOU! I'm an ENGLISH major now!" and as he disappeared across the store, I could hear him singing, "Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy..."



There are some moments in life I'll never forget.



This was one of them.