I’d like to meet

A magical leprechaun who would grant me one wish. Unfortunately or perhaps maliciously, he will misconstrue my words and turn my lavish dream into a comical, yet non-lethal anecdote.

Many years later I will be sitting at the soda fountain of my neighborhood Five & Dime, sipping an egg crème and wondering why a prescription of Amoxicillin takes 45 minutes to fill, when she will walk in. Stunning and struggling to find vanilla wafers in aisles of shortbread cookies, I will come to her aid. After exchanged smiles and a thank you, she buys me an egg salad sandwich. It will be on marble rye and we will share it.

I will take a deep breath tell her about my brief encounter with mythical lore, which by this time I will have told so many times, the actual nature of the (already farcical) tale will have evolved into an intricate one-man production - complete with timed moments of reflection and a five-figure book deal on the table. She will tell me about the importance of picking up dry-cleaning in a timely manner and why her family still calls her “Boots”.

We will wed 14 months later in a small ceremony off Lake Michigan. In attendance will be her cousin Jon Favereau, who as fate would have it, played law student-to-be D-Bob in 1993’s Rudy – the inspired underdog tale of Daniel E. “Rudy” Ruttegier and his time at the University of Notre Dame.

Carrying around that pocket thesaurus for a year means shit right now

Me: blown

Your suggestion: The capital of Sierra Leone

Anyone who missed out on the chance to get me a Christmas present, I won't hold it against you. All I ask for is a decent rhyming dictionary and we'll call it water under the bridge.

My scarlet

She left an indelible mark in the most literal of ways.
Something violet and new
Something learned, something true.

A bit about her, but mostly myself.
A fleeting story to tell
In the end, I learned something else.