It Was Then

It was not how it began that mattered that much. After all, beginnings are fairly arbitrary. Who really knows where anything begins? You may say it was when you first met that it all started, but that ignores all the other events that led to that meeting.

After all, would you have met her, there, on that street corner if you were not already late and rushing? What if you’d been early, or even – for once – on time? Maybe then, you would have been watching where you were going and you would have seen her. Just another of those beautiful women you pass by on every street on every other day that get a glance and a little daydream of what might be until the next face or body or something catches your eye.

It didn’t begin as though it was going to be a special day either. There were no signs or portents, no omens of good or bad luck. Nor was there any suggestion that the physical forces that control the universe would fall into line to construct this chain of events. Of course, we know too there are no gods or other supernatural agencies working out the fates of humans either, whether playing dice or not. There are no fates or destinies either. We also know that the various forms of divination of the future have only ever been successful at separating the gullible from their money.

So, nothing was fated, or inevitable, and any other simple action by either one of you would have led to you passing each other by that morning.

But you didn’t….

You walked into her and her papers for her morning meeting scattered in the wind. Those papers wrapping themselves around the feet of others passing you both by as you knelt on the pavement, apologising and not daring to look up at her.

But, when you did look up and into her face, it was then everything changed.