Dream Threads (late)

I close my eyes and she is standing on the platform, reaching out to me with a sheet of paper in her left hand. The train lurches forward.

It was the summer of '79 and I had just turned 18. The wind had been high that morning, biting the tips of my pale ears. She was a daughter of a member of city council, I was a dropout - much to my mother's dismay. "It's only a couple more months," she'd plead.

But that was a few months too long. I was gonna go places and I didn't care where. Any place but fucking Kentucky. My short hair, gloves and sunglasses (hey, I was cool, I swear) were enough to make folk stay clear of me. Rumors went around about me being a queer drug addict. That was more than enough to get someone to spray paint my locker.

Finishing school? A few more months? Hell no.

So there I was, hanging out on my front porch with a cigarette in hand. Just being the waste of space they thought I was. A heavy jean jacket hung around my shoulders. I had heard her going door to door before, inviting folk to the church. Anna. She had one of those pretty faces. Unintimidating, friendly and open-minded. Impressionable? Nah. That wasn't giving her enough credit.

She wore those matchy outfits. You know the kind. Accented with bows, flowers or "American" jewelry, a little bit of blush, 'nail gloss' or whatever it was. Probably got fashion advice from her grandmother. Totally square. I had her pegged, man.

"Would you like to hear the good news?" And here it goes. Every once in a while a concerned teacher, preacher or nosy stranger would pull me aside and tell me about how I'd be missing out on the joys of motherhood and family life. Or that I'd just burn in Hell. Depends on how much they knew me as a little girl. Anna never really talked to me before.

My family wasn't the right kind of people. I wasn't the right kind of kid. And who could blame her for thinking that?

"Um... let's see, does it involve Led Zeppelin? Otherwise, I'm not interested. You dig?"

Her mouth twitched, but she wasn't going to give way to a smile. "Alright, man," I raised my eyebrows, "Can I sit down?"

We talked and talked until we looked up and saw it was nighttime. The empty church illuminated solely by the streetlights outsides.