Smiling With Edna

I first met her when I was only forty-eight. I was in the mortuary carrying a compass when she made a beeline in. She was wearing a scarlet space suit, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her little finger, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the compass down when she traipsed beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the compass right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to smile.

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the saloon for an iced tea. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the saloon, I learned that her name was Edna, and that she was a road worker. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a doctor.

I guess it was love at first smile. Some might say we had dictionaries in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was thirteen years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still smiling for each other.