The Girl In The Window

She was as Irish as "Paddy's Pig", yet her olive skin glowed with evidence  that she had the blood of the Spanish Conquistadors. Her eyes sparkled as she sat by her window,  and I wondered who this vision of an Angel could be. I wanted to say something, but she was three stories up. When she stood to look at me, my heart throbbed wildly with excitement. Her cut off shorts showcased a beautiful pair of legs.

How could I only be living two blocks away from her and never have noticed her before? I wondered to myself. 

But then sadness crept into my heart when I remembered that I was on Grandma's block.  I usually did everything to avoid walking on her block since she had passed away a few years ago because I missed her and was so pained whenever I walked on the street were she once lived.

Then I remembered that I was on that street because my Mom had asked me to pick up something at the store that day, and I had to pass by there to get to that store. So I continued on to the store and did not give the girl in the window another thought.

Time passed and I started to feel very lonely soon after my high school girlfriend left town, but I had chosen not to accompany her.  A lot of girls liked me, but I wasn't very happy dating them because none of them could fill the void that I felt.

Determined to search the world for my soul mate, I joined the Navy. I met every type of woman that inhabited planet earth. Some were beautiful, some were very bright, but alas, none of them qualified to be my soul mate. Soon after leaving the Navy, I settled down to a mundane life again and very ordinary dating that while being okay, always seemed to lack that special ingredient.

But often times I wondered if there really ever could be a recipe for a soul mate. Was I just a hopeless romantic who was setting a goal that was just forever out of reach? Then I would wonder how I would even know if I found a soul mate.

I thought, Will a bell go off in my head or something?

But as time passed, and I dated many beautiful women, the empty feeling deep down inside me remained. No matter what I did, I was incomplete. I was desperate to feel whole, but wholeness still eluded me. I even turned to online dating sites to see if what I was looking for was out there somewhere.

Then one day I ranted on an online dating site because they didn't have a box to check that said spiritual but not religious, and it disturbed me deeply to think that people on that site might get the idea that I'm not spiritual just because I don't follow any one religion with absolute authority.

To my surprise I got a tremendous amount of letters in response to my religious tirade, and, having a photographic memory, I stumbled upon one of the letters that contained the profile picture of that girl in the window that had lived two blocks away from where I once lived, Anne Therese. I made no mention of that to her. I even teased her a bit and told her I thought she was Scottish looking.

I loved her, and we exchanged a few messages that at first were all about religion and nothing else. Then after a while she mentioned that she was majoring in writing.  I read some of her short stories and realized  that she had a lot talent as a writer.  She complimented me on my writing ability too. As weeks marched on I complained to her that I was having trouble with my studies for a ten-hour test I needed to take soon for a certification. She replied that she said a prayer that I would pass the test.

And then all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had traveled all the way around the world to find my soul mate, but all that time, she was only living two blocks away from me.