Clarification

Malachi and Crystal

They met in New Orleans. Fell in love, then out of love.

He moved to Austin. He calls himself a traveler, part of a subculture tribe of reckless souls freight-hopping from city to city, trying to observe and learn about the world.

She was married, divorced, her children all grown up, her job gone, looking for a different life. She came to Austin too, looking for a life where she could simply live.

He said one day he was walking with his friends, and there she was. “Oh my god, it’s Crystal.”

She saw him, came up to him, slapped him across the face, then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

He says that he doesn’t believe in coincidences. She says she thinks it was karma.

But they both agree that they found each other for a reason.

And that’s where we found them, sitting together on the bench at the bus stop. Laughing about the past, talking about life, and asking the occasional passerby for spare change.

They say they’re like an old married couple now, even though they just started dating again. He started to get angry when they began arguing about something, but then she took his hand, and he got quiet.

****

I like stories like these.

As much as I would like to think that the Meyers-Briggs personality test cannot define who I am, I realized that I do fall somewhat into the category of INFP. I came to this realization the other day. I am a dreamer. I am an idealist.

I didn’t want to admit this at first. In high school my friends and I always talked about how guys liked girls who were really down-to-earth and practical. I tried to believe that I fell under that label, but the reality is, I’m something of a drama queen.

I like to take small things and have emotional reactions to them that are wildly disproportional. I am in no way logical or practical. I like to think unrealistically and imagine that things are crazier and wilder than they actually are. I’m also a hopeless romantic. And I’m okay with that.

I hope Malachi and Crystal end up together forever. But even if they don’t, in my head there’s a happy ending that I will write for them that I will add to the endless stories I have filed away in my mind.