Past IV

Melissa and I arrive at the Ocean Queen and we sat down to lunch. It turns out that she was not actually stalking me, but Mike was upset that his girlfriend Donna broke up with him to be with me. I don't know what was going on in his head but hindsight tells me I have a pretty good idea. Melissa too found the whole situation odd and wanted my take on it, thus her urgency. I remember very little of our conversation about Mike and Donna but I do remember learning Melissa was a gymnastics coach and a dance teacher. I could still vision how her lurid brown eyes would twinkle when she spoke of her kids (students). I saw so much energy in her spirit and body that I can't say I have ever seen before meeting her or since. It was sensational to be near her. My failure to be able to express these things would haunt me in the years to come. Along with my low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy, I think I tried to over compensate for those things and at one of our many times at the Ocean Queen diner Melissa soon jokingly found a song on one of those diner tableside juke boxes by Carley Simon, "Your So Vane", and dedicated it to me. To this day I wonder about Melissa's "clouds in her coffee".