The Side Effects of Endorphins

Here is an excerpt from a story I wrote while riding planes, buses and trains. In what we write I hope at times to reflect on experiences or simple lore. 

I was new to Germany and did not have it all figured out. I often took the buses or trains in the wrong direction, missed the important nuance in the spoken language, and occasionally lost my way in the city. I was getting better but only in small increments. Just last week I was to meet a girl for coffee. It was a blind date of sorts, set up by an internet algorithm, and we had a certain chemistry. I took the wrong train and walked into a coffee shop on the wrong side of town. Blind dates are not my forte and I had no idea I was in the wrong café. There sat a pixyish girl at a table all alone. The pictures on dating apps are unreliable at best, so I assumed this single girl at the table in the corner of the cafe was my date. It is not often that people show up in real life much prettier than what their profile suggests. I was so nervous that I could not remember her name. I caught her eye with a furtive glance, and she timidly returned the gesture.

She spoke to me in German and I introduced myself. She told me her name was Heidi. That was not the first time in my life I heard the name Heidi. I was so focused on what she was saying in German that I did not have time to figure out that something was not right. It may have been a great mistake. We both ordered coffee. I was at a loss as to what to do with the little biscuits on the plate. Sensing this, and my knack for backward sentences, she said it was okay to speak English with her. Against the run of play, we hit it off rather well. Her German was marginally better than mine and we had much the same attitudes toward life. 

It’s telling sometimes our messages to our younger selves are in part reflections on watching out kids grow up. just be your own unique self. That is everything.