Meeting

I had just parked my car on the street. Driving around for a late-ish morning smoke and strange coffee. I pulled out my wallet and I saw him walking directly to my car, towards me, asking. And so I got out my two 1's for the electronic meter and opened the car door to greet him. He had already begun passing me by, no longer trying.

"Sir, you can't just go up to young ladies in cars."

"Oh, sorry, did I scare you?"

"No, but what I if I were someone that would be scared?"

"You're right, you know what they say, 'they can arrest you'!"

We laughed and I responded and he started away again, but I knew what he had been asking for and I held it in my hand and didn't want to just let him walk away.

"Can I help you with something though?" He knew, I knew, it was just a little help. Too bad it was only money.

"Yes, I was going to ask for a little change to get some breakfast." His coat and boots seemed warm. His skin was dark and soft and his eyes were aged in that young sort of way. The words were not crisp and clear and separate and I was thankful to understand them. More like a burbling bird, the water kind. His head was covered from the cold. Some breakfast.

"Well I don't have change but I have a couple 1's."

He thanked me; "I hope I didn't mess you up for your parking" and I touched his shoulder and told him to be safe. He was happy and couldn't walk away for a minute.

He told me how pretty I looked today, that I look like a leprechaun. I was delighted and laughed into my shoulder. It reminded him of something else, he started to tell me, but I couldn't make out the words. He told me something, a single sentence, a lesson- what? And I couldn't understand the words. Were they his words? Listen to the silence. But I had to respond. Work called, I didn't want to be rude, I had missed it.

"You take care." I meant it.

"You too." "Thank you!" He called as we began to walk in opposite directions.

"You're welcome!"

I smiled at never having been called a leprechaun before. I still wished I had made out what he said. It's the silence in between the words. Had I just met a master? He was coming straight for me, and all I did was nothing, and I don't know how it happened, but here I am, changed.