Schöne

Today I met a girl. I met her on the train from Berlin. She was a lovely girl. Her name was... well, I don't think I know her name. I guess I never will.

I was standing on a train platform, waiting for the train to arrive that would take me from Berlin to Weimar. I was nodding my head to my music. I had my eyes closed behind my sunglasses so that I could hear the track better (a habit I picked up in my music studies). As the song on my headphones came to a satisfying resolution, I smiled. It was an easy smile, a comfortable smile, the kind of smile you might see me make after I've just had a delicious meal or accomplished some trival personal triumph like guessing where my keys are on the first try.

Still smiling, I opened my eyes and removed my sunglasses. I panned my vision over the train platform, taking in everything I could see one last time before a train pulled up and whisked me away to some other place. I was just about to finish my scan and put my sunglasses back over my eyes, and that was when I saw her.

She was thirty feet away, standing at my 10 o'clock. She looked about 5'5" tall; she had long, thick, strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail that swished between her shoulder blades. She had let her thick bangs fall over her forehead, a hairstyle not uncommon for a young German woman. Her frame was eye-catching, a feminine set of curves wrapped in a pair of tan jeans and a conservative brown tank top. She carried a small red satchel, its strap slung over her left shoulder. But I didn't see any of those things at first. No, the first I saw of her was her eyes. They caught my attention not because they were beautiful (though I should tell you that they were beautiful: an icy, pale blue, full of light and curiosity, nestled on either side of a petite and freckle-covered nose), but because they were looking right back at me. She was staring. I had caught her.

My smile, still on my face from the music I had finished only moments ago, grew into a grin. She let slip with a grin of her own and her eyes darted toward the ground. If my color vision would permit me to see flesh tones, I imagine I might have seen her blush. I held my gaze, waiting for her to look back at me. She did. Peering up from under her eyebrows, the pale blue eyes were illuminated by the bashful smile still decorating her face, lending them a warmth you don't often get to see in German women. We held eye contact for what seemed like minutes, though I know in reality it was only moments. I told myself to approach her, but that thought was interrupted by a familiar series of sounds: vibrating metal, brake pads, and a powerful engine switching from thrust into idle. My train was arriving. It was time for me to leave. I wondered if the girl was going to Weimar. I hoped she was going to Weimar.

The train stopped. Its doors came to a halt right in front of where I stood, as if the train were stopping just for me. The crowd (including the girl) moved en masse towards the entrance. As the girl came nearer to the doors, her eyes focused on the train but her body language was directed at me. She wanted me to say hello.

Her right arm was draped over her satchel. I walked up to her. As I came near, I extended my left hand. I placed my first three fingers on her forearm. Her head snapped in my direction. I saw her eyes again. Whatever it was I had planned to say, it was forgotten. I stood there for a moment, dumbstruck. I smiled again, stalling while I came up with something.

Got it! My brilliant opener: "Do you speak English?"

She grinned. "Yes, a little bit."

"Oh, good. Is this the train to Weimar?"

"Yes! You're going to Weimar?"

"Yes, you?"

"Mm hmm."

"Well hey, let's sit together and chat, we can be train buddies. You up for it?"

I sensed that I shouldn't have used an idiom. She seemed confused, but she nodded so I figured she had gotten the jist. I let her precede me onto the train. She turned to the left, into the first class cabin. My heart sank. My ticket was for the second class cabin. My great romance was over before it had started. I laughed aloud, wordlessly chiding myself for becoming attached to this anonymous girl after only a ten second encounter. Shaking my head, a grin on my face, I turned to my right and entered the second class cabin.

I found an empty seat and sat down next to the window. I put my bag under the chair. I leaned back and looked towards the door of the cabin.

The girl walked in, and I felt my heart thud in my chest. I kept cool, figuring she was headed to the bathroom or something, but she saw me and held eye contact. She smiled. I smiled back. I patted the seat next to me and she took it.

There wasn't a moment of awkward silence for the entire trip. I mean, sure, there were pauses, but they only served as paragraph breaks in an otherwise seamless conversation. We discussed all sorts of things. She amazed me with her knowledge. Her interest in history, her perspectives on art, even the way she talked about her dog, it was all indicative of a soul whose curiosity was only matched by the drive to see that curiosity satiated. We had read a few of the same books, though she had read them in German and I in English. She told me about some movies I should watch while I was learning German.

Three hours later, we arrived in Weimar. I started walking towards my destination, and she walked alongside me. The air was warm. The sun was shining. I felt content, and I continued to enjoy my conversation with the girl whose name I will not know.

We came to a point where our paths were separating. I asked her where she was going.

"Mm, I must go back to my school."

Hey, a college girl, I thought. "Oh, you're in school? What are you studying?"

"Study...? oh, no, I am not studying anything. I am in the ninth grade."

"OKAY WELL IT WAS VERY NICE TO MEET YOU BUT I'M AFRAID I'M IN A TERRIBLE RUSH HAVE A PLEASANT AFTERNOON."

And then I ran away.