...beneath these tragic waves
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Surprise Find
2009-02-16

I was purging my apartment of absolutely everything I no longer need - if you haven't heard, I'm moving - when I came across a familiar box that I had not really opened in years. I recall the box well, but the contents not at all. Opening it I found some odds and ends that I've had since as long as I can remember. Nothing I need in my everyday life, but small tokens that make me smile.

A card - to the AikiRose - "thanks for the plate - Andrew"
A postcard with Brandon Lee from the Crow on it. Left on my desk when I was in 10th grade in my mythology class.
A lone, unused chopstick from China Taste.
An old love letter; I left it unopened. Some things are better that way.

Upon reaching the bottom, I found an item I had no idea I still had. It was a ticket stub, faded with age, but I knew it at once though the words are barely legible. It was a special stub. I had asked my first love to go out with me at this movie. "Go out", as we called it back in the day. Way back in '96.

For a moment I could hear her soft giggle when I was trying to get the nerve to ask her. Feel the pressure on my right side from my friend HEED!, telling me to stop being a chicken and "just DO it, geez". So I did. I could almost hear her quiet reply - "of course I will, dummy" - and smell that clean scent that always came from her when she turned her head and her hair tumbled over a shoulder.

I was smiling and I knew it. I took that moment to remember good times. To remember gestures and words from her that changed my life.

I dropped the ticket into the trash bin. It settled quietly next to the banana that had - judging by the color - lost in a rather violent fight. Only a momentary urge to pick up the stub before I was back to my chores.

It's time to save tickets from a movie with a new love. Wherever she is.

devolve | evolve

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