Sorry Dear Reader, today’s story from the Keys is not a silly story.
It’s about a metaphysical moment we had when we went to lunch today. A moment that almost didn’t happen. If we had not arrived at the exact time we did our paths would not have crossed with the lovely woman we chatted with. If I had gotten up and put on my shoes right away or not double checked that all the doors were locked or if we had been able to turn left quicker onto the main road to get to the restaurant, we never would have met her.
A handful of events in my life, both with and without Jess, have given me made me question the existence of a literal multiverse. Events like today bolster my belief. An infinite number of universes each with a Chris and Jess who end up together and end up with Joni. Maybe in some universes we even get together sooner than later.
One of the things all of these metaphysical events have in common is that the encounter is with someone and it inexplicably feels like we have known each other in another life and there is a perceived, even if not spoken, mutual feeling of that connection.
This afternoon we went back to Key Fisheries for lunch. Jess and Joni got to the line first and I was a few feet behind them walking from the car. Joni wanted to go look in the ocean at the fish that hang out in the water by the seating areas so she stepped out of line. Before I made to the spot Jess had just left an older woman and one person from the group she was with stepped into Jess’ spot before I could get there. We weren’t in a hurry and it was beautiful day.
The woman in line in front of me was wearing a t-shirt that said, “it’s not my fault, I was left unsupervised.” When Jess and Joni returned from visiting the fish Jess commented that she liked her shirt and the woman replied “thank you, it was my son’s. He had Multiple Sclerosis and passed a few years ago.”
Jess pointed at me and said, “he has MS too. Twenty years now.” After that the woman and I spoke for a few minutes about how it had affected her son and I talked about how it affected me. She said she was happy I was mobile and able to walk and I said I was too and didn’t take it for granted.
Our new friend loved that Joni was named after Joni Mitchell and that we had dated in high school and found each other again and gotten married 30 years later. When you find the one they will always be in your heart until the time is right. We each ordered our food and parted ways at the cashier.
After we finished eating I took the tray to the trash and Jess and Joni headed back to the car. On their way to the car they ran into our new friend again and she walked over to Jess and asked if she could tell her something. Jess said yes and our new friend proceeded to tell Jess that it was obvious how much we loved each other and how much we loved Joni. She was happy to see we were so in love because she had seen her son’t heart broken twice and it hurt her as a mother. She knew I was only slightly younger than her son and when she showed us a picture of him we knew I must have reminded her of him and she may have had a what might have been moment about him. Jess shared the story with me when we got back to the car.
The whole experience was kind of emotional.
Jess started the car and we headed back to the house. We both recognized the significance of the event and recalled another significant metaphysical moment years ago about a year before Joni was born.
Picture it. 2018, Lower East Side, Manhattan. It was a Sunday morning and we had gone to a hole-in-the-wall breakfast places that still had 2 eggs, potatoes, toast, and coffee for $5 named Zaffi’s. It was our usual stop before going to the pencil store. We had been seated and ordered and were having our coffee when a woman, very likely someone’s abuela, stopped at our table and said, “hello again! Where is that beautiful little girl of yours?”
We were understandably confused. Joni was not in our lives yet and even if we had met this woman before there was zero chance we would have had a baby girl or any baby with us. We explained that we didn’t have children yet. She was insistent that she had met us at Zaffi’s and we had a little girl with us. Even though she was insistent it wasn’t in a creepy or off-putting way which I didn’t understand until after the encounter was over.
Before she left she said something that stuck with both of us. “Oh, I must have seen your future.” She wished us a good day and went on her way.
We sat in stunned silence for a moment. Nothing about the encounter was creepy or seemed drug induced or crazy. Just a nice abuela who apparently could see our future.
About a year later we were back at Zaffi’s for breakfast and I remembered the woman who saw our future and wondered if this was the moment she saw. It could have been.
There are a couple other significant metaphysical moments like that but I will leave it at these two for now.
Back to funny vacation stories tomorrow.
