Gulfs and tangencies

At the hotel lobby, they look into each other’s eyes, wondering separately if they are to kiss as how a bouquet of roses is lovingly given, or merely embrace, as if a gentleman is tipping his hat to a proper lady. The physical space between them is narrow yet the gulf lodged between is impenetrable.

He looks on as she widens the distance between them, and with the pressing of an unspecified number on the elevator door, she enters what would be her final journey to oblivion. At least that was what he thought. He obliges the Japanese crew with a group picture, these strangers huddled close to him, yet the one person who is (and will soon be ‘was’) the world to him – for at least a week – is beyond reach.

* * *

Perhaps they don’t call it second chances for nothing. He, in a rental car whizzing through the busy streets of Tokyo, chances upon the sight of a still-warm recognition of ash blonde hair. Yes, the streets were busy and the driver may not appreciate him vaguely urging for the car to stop but as it is with second chances, the rules of the street would have to oblige the yearning heart.

He follows the trail of ash blonde hair amidst a sea of darks and browns. He trails her not in the way a hunter fastidiously eyes his prey. No, not this afternoon of afternoons. He simply follows her lead.

She hears her name and as they recognize each other, they recognize the gulf lodged between them.

No, not this afternoon of afternoons.

He embraces her in the most loving, vulnerable way of conveying to her, “I understood.”

She buries the right cheek of her face, her skin ardently registering the collar jacket that rests on his weary shoulder, the weary shoulder that braces his neck, the neck that holds his face, the face that stations the lips which eventually touches hers. That kiss, that kiss that simultaneously translated their loneliness, their frustrations, their fears, their aches, and that moment in their lives when a chance meeting obliterates somehow manages to intimate to them in the most secret of possible languages that yes, things will be alright.