Trembling With Tara

I first met her when I was only fifty-three. I was in the brewery carrying a fire hose when she slunk in. She was wearing a sea green headscarf, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her kneecap, but I pretended not to notice.

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

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the deli for a cup of espresso. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the deli, I learned that her name was Tara, and that she was an editor. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a clockmaker.

I guess it was love at first tremble. Some might say we had telephone books in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was nineteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still trembling for each other.