Bouncing With Esther

I first met her when I was only twenty-eight. I was in the liquor store carrying an ingot of plutonium when she struggled in. She was wearing an azure fez, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her claw, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the mortuary, I learned that her name was Esther, and that she was an interior designer. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an editor.

I guess it was love at first bounce. Some might say we had pairs of binoculars 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 bouncing for each other.