It was lunch, and I was going to sit and eat with her. Everyone had told me she had some sort of scar, and was very standoffish because of it. Apparently she was quite self-conscious because of that scar. Her brown hair was brushed so it covered the right side of her face, and she perpetually kept her head down, trying to cover it.
I had only worked there three months, and knew I hadn't fit in. I was too strange for them. I didn't care about sports, could care less about politics, or celebrity who is sleeping with who nonsense. I worked there, with them, and her.
I was a truck driver, we worked at a warehouse, and I drove the truck that backed the trailers to the doors, and pulled the trailers out when they were loaded, or unloaded, as required. I spent a lot of time just hanging around, but was tolerated because I could hit even the tough to access doors on the first try. So no time lost waiting for the driver to get his act together.
I sat down across from Julie at the picnic table behind the warehouse. I smiled and said "Hello, I'm Paul, and you are supposed to be Julie right?"
She nodded slightly, and nibbled at her salad.
"I have been here about three months, and near as I can tell, have met and talked to everyone except you, so I thought I would stop by and say hello." I said cheerfully.
She mumbled something. It sounded like "Hello."
I chatted while I ate my sandwich, talking about the weather, we were in a drought in Georgia, and that subject was summed up in a minute.
After I had been babbling on with small talk for about 15 minutes, Julie looked up at me and I was astonished to see anger in her eye. She was angry. She was mad at me.
"Come to see the scar?" she demanded, and she had said the first words to me in full volume, and her voice was full of anger.
"No, I came to each lunch with you. I've eaten with everyone else, and." I started, but didn't get to finish.
"Bullshit, you can't lie to me, you want to see what I am, take a look, take a good look at the freak." She pulled her hair back from her face exposing her scared cheek. Her scar was a burn scar, apparently from some car accident or another. It was on the right side of her face, and ran from her light blue eye to her jaw line. Her eye appeared to droop because of it. I glanced at it and then looked her in the eye.
"That isn't who you are, scars don't define who we are, just where we've been." I said.
She looked at me shock evident on her face, and lowered her hair, and then her head. She stood and walked back into the building.
I finished the day, expecting to be called into the office and informed that I didn't work there anymore. Well, I've been fired before, and for better reasons than trying to be nice to someone. I wasn't called into the office, and punched the clock as I left for the day.
The next morning I saw her. Julie did data entry, from a small cubby office near the managers office. She was in the warehouse and not the office now, and glanced at me a couple times while talking to the Foreman. I waved and she gave me a shy wave back, with a small hint of a smile.
At lunch, I went back to the table in the back lot. It was really set up for the smokers, but they all smoked near the door, and didn't bother walking out here. I saw Julie sitting there, and kept walking toward the table.
"Hi Julie, how are you doing today?" I asked cheerfully.
"Ok, and you Paul?" Julie said with a stronger voice than yesterday.
"Fine, no complaints so far." I said.
I pulled out my sandwich and saw she was working on some soup and she kept glancing at me.
Julie and I sat like that for about half the lunch hour and then she said "Did you mean what you said about the scars not being who we are?"
"Yes, if you have heard of me from the others, you know I only say what I mean, perhaps not as well as I would like, but you get the point." I told her.
"Yeah, I've heard that. They said you won't tell a lie period." Julie said.
"I may not volunteer information, but that's not lying, that's merely reserving something." I said.
"So you don't think the scar is horrible?" Julie asked her voice brittle and very thin.
"No, you were hurt badly once, that is what the scar says about you. It doesn't say you are a nice person. Your actions say that. It doesn't tell the story of who you are, just what happened that day you were hurt." I said and placed a chip into my mouth.
"Thanks, it's very nice of you to say that." Julie said.
We ate lunch in silence, and then went back to work. The next day I again ate lunch with Julie, and on Thursday, I asked her out.
"Julie, I know you probably have plans, but I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me tomorrow?" I asked her.
"You aren't asking me out on a date are you?" she asked me, her voice again brittle.
"Sure, I mean, I know I'm only a trucker, and can hardly be a great date, but if you aren't busy, yes, I'm asking you out." I said.
She looked at me, we had spent some time over the last few days looking into each others eyes, well I looked into her left eye, her right was usually hidden in shadow from her hair.