Stretching With Meredith

I first met her when I was only fifty-two. I was in the liquor store carrying a stopwatch when she flew in. She was wearing an emerald green pair of socks, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her knuckle, but I pretended not to notice.

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

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the auto repair shop 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 auto repair shop, I learned that her name was Meredith, and that she was a janitor. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an executioner.

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