And that has made all the difference.....

There once was a girl, a long time ago.

And no, this doesn't end tragically. 

I won't use her real name; the name is a common one, and I don't want somebody reading this thinking that this song is about them.

We went to high school together; actually, we went to elementary school through high school together.  She lived in roughly the same neighborhood together, but we didn't really associate on a personal level.....

Except this one time.  I don't really know how it happened.  We were in this place, and sitting next to each other, talking.  The music changed, and then we were dancing.  The lights went low, and when two high school students are holding each other and the lights go down and the music is just right.....memorable things happen. 

Apparently.

From that day to this, the Bob Seger song, TURN THE PAGE, reminds me of her.

So, we liked each other well enough to connect at the lips.....but that's not what I'm thinking about today.

It was one winter night, sometime after that dance.  I was leaving the house to attend a gathering; it was a weekend, and that's what we did on weekends.....and headed up the road.  I can dimly recall a figure walking through the snow in the opposite direction I was going.  I didn't really notice other than a person in coat and a hat. 

It was her.  She'd had a tough day, and she was heading to my house, seeking my company.

Two ships passing in the night.

I occasionally wonder, when I'm sitting in an office in the middle of the night, about the crossroads, and the mystery of the road flirted with, but not taken.

Maybe I would have been more confident; maybe less lonely; maybe more social.

The illusion of those other roads can occasionally be comforting.