for
9/16/2000
Two people are in Boston's South Station bus terminal. They are caucasians of average and nearly equal height, each with long, light brown hair and a thin frame. He wears a blue business shirt, open and untucked, and she a light gray waffle shirt, also loose. Both have backpacks. Her jeans have a sewn-in flair of floral fabric at the calves. He sports a pair of tan corduroys. His shoes are the sort of light sneaker that skate-boarders once made popular; hers are a well worn pair of the kind of plastic sandals that have little massaging nubs on them. They are both about twenty years old. Frequent shows of affection indicate that they are lovers. The couple is otherwise unremarkable.
In reality, the ticket that the woman refers to occasionally is unredeemable, voided when printed. It was requested of Peter Pan Bus Lines by the local transit police, of whom she is an employee. Security at the bus station, as well as the adjoining rail terminal, is heightened but low key, with numerous plainclothed cops such as she spread around the grounds. The man at her side is prepared, in case of an incident, to retrieve a gun or pepper spray from the small pocket (rigged with Velcro) at the back of her backpack. His is rigged the same way. The shows of affection are false, they barely know each other from the office, and their faces are beginning to hurt from the smiling.
Or, the man went to high school in Framingham and skipped college to start an internet company. His school best friend came on as a secretary, working her way through college. In the break room of the floor that his company has come to occupy in northern Cambridge one night, they found themselves kissing. They parried about, in and out of a relationship for about a month, and finally settled on being together. That was two months ago. The woman was just informed, three hours before now, that her step-father's mother is in the hospital.
The man has borrowed his friend's car and driven her to the bus terminal, bought her her ticket to New York and just now managed to get her to stop crying. His friend is working late tonight, but will need the car to get home to Newton. The woman's bus arrives soon. When she thinks of it, she'll get on his case about paying him back, but with the amount of money that's gone back and forth between these two over the years, it really doesn't matter.
Or, it's been a long day, and these two are beat. They're up from Providence, where they go to college, and they've spent the day at an internet organized protest against genetically modified foods. CFI International, a leading genetics company, had its annual conference today; the two got to be part of the human chain that blocked the main entrance of the conference center as an independent group stopped traffic in the street, and another snuck onto the roof to hang a banner. The police showed up and arrested several people, but they managed to get away. They're wondering if it all made the news.
Right now, they're hoping that his roommate decided to stay in Portland another night, so that they can fool around in his room. Her roommate, Alice, is a Mormon, and a disapproving one at that, who never leaves on weekends.
Or, these two are college students who go to different schools. He's seeing her off, after spending the weekend with her. They met two summers ago, In Maine, and had a brief love affair. It ended in a messy way, because she had a boyfriend other than him, named Dan. With anyone else, he might have bowed out peacefully, but he was still angry with Dan for something he'd done that spring. Little resolved, she went home to Massachusetts at the end of the summer.
Toward the end of the next summer, she found out, by talking to him, that Dan was still interested in her. She and Dan got back together, and stayed together through most of the fall. Dan dumped her for a girl whom he's still with. Toward the end of the year, the man separately found another girlfriend, and the woman found a new boyfriend. Each had a long-term relationship for the first time, and both of theirs, by the next summer, were showing cracks.
Through an inexplicable series of events, they ended up together again by the end of the summer, and neither has ever been happier.
Which one is real? You're right; sorry I couldn't make this harder. Still, wow... you know?
Touch the Toast