Chapter 22
Heaven can wait, the reincarnation from Lynn to Kate.
She told me that she was in a serious car accident. She told me that she could have and should have died. Maybe Kate was supposed to die and did die in that accident. Maybe Lynn wasn't supposed to die in her accident. Just as what happened in that movie, Heaven Can Wait, did Lynn's Angel, hoping to save her from pain and suffering, make a mistake and take her spirit and her soul too soon? Was Lynn supposed to have survived that accident? Then, when the Angel was trying to fix his or her mistake, was Kate's body the only body available for Lynn to return in to me?
I looked at her while looking for any residual clues of Lynn as evidence to my crazy supposition. Other than her eyes, the same beautiful eyes as Lynn's eyes, Kate looked nothing like Lynn. Other than she was tall, beautiful, and had the same shapely body, well, there's my clue. As hot as was Lynn, in that regard, Kate looked a lot like Lynn. Only, where Lynn was younger, Kate was older by 20 years. By teasing me with the thought that Kate may be Lynn reincarnated, was Heaven sending me a message for me to stay with a woman my own age? A message I'd be happy to take, if only Kate would have me, I'd be a happy man.
Only, with her on her way to checkout to pay for her groceries and with the chance that I'd lose her and never see her again, I had to act fast to stop her from leaving the store. Hoping she was just as interested in me as I was in her, I had to think of something witty, funny, and/or intelligent to say to delay her departure. Not able to think of anything, I asked her the obvious.
"Would you like to grab some lunch?"
There, I said it. I put myself out there by telling her that I was interested in her enough to invite her to lunch. If this was meant to be, if she was, indeed, my Lynn, she'd say yes. Preparing myself for rejection, I watched her while trying to read her body language. Hoping, while waiting for her to accept my invitation to lunch, she looked at her watch and back at me.
"What do we do with our groceries?"
Relieved that only groceries stood in our way of finding everlasting love, I wanted to take her carriage with mine, roll them down the aisle, and leave. Who cares about groceries, when I'm about to rekindle my love affair again with my dream woman reincarnated in someone else's body? Needing to think of something to say that would appease her and make her stay with me, at least long enough for me to talk to her over lunch, I took a long shot that she'd agree. Again, if she was Lynn and if this was meant to be, she'd go with me whatever the Hell I said.
"We can drop off our groceries and meet back here," I said hoping to allay any safety concerns that she may have in being with a total stranger by asking her to meet me back at the supermarket, a public place.
"I have a better idea," she said with a smile and a thoughtful pause before continuing. "Why don't you follow me home and you can help me with my bundles and then I'll do the same for you."
"Okay, yeah, sure, so long as you don't look at my messy house," I said with a laugh and feeling good that she obviously trusted me enough to ask me to her house. "Like I said, I've been alone for a while."
"Well, normally, I don't invite strangers, especially strange men, to follow me home and help me with my bundles nor do I volunteer to go to a strange man's house unescorted, but I feel safe with you for some reason," she looked at me, as if trying to place my face. "There's something in your eyes that looks so very familiar. It's weird but I feel as if I've met you somewhere before long ago."
"Me too. I got that same feeling when I looked in your eyes. You have very beautiful eyes."
I wanted to tell her about that movie, Heaven Can Wait, but I figured that reference can wait, at least, until I got to know her better. I didn't want her to think that I was totally strange and that the only reason why I was attracted to her was because I thought she was the reincarnation of my dead girlfriend. That would go over real big.
"Thank you," she said looking down at my hands. "I couldn't help but notice your hands when you touched my hand. You have nice hands. Women notice men's hands. Your hands are strong with long fingers and clean fingernails."
"Yeah," I said looking at my fingernails before looking back at her. "I don't like getting my fingernails dirty."
"What do you do?"
"Do? You mean for a living? For work?"
"Yeah," she laughed at my clumsy conversation. "What's your occupation?"
"Oh, nothing, I don't have an occupation. I write. I write novels, short stories, and poems. After having had some early success writing a couple of bestsellers, I retired early from the rat race of getting up to go to work every day. I work from home now and am free to write whatever I want, whenever I want. Not having to dance to the drumbeat of a publisher is what every writer wants but few ever get. I was lucky. Now they solicit me, instead me having to solicit them."
"A writer? I never met a writer before. My last boyfriend was a school administrator. My ex-husband was a salesman."
"And what about you? What do you do?"
"I used to model," she said looking almost ashamed instead of being proud.
"Obviously," I said taking that as an invitation to look down at her body. "I could tell that. You look like a model."
"It was so long ago and such a brief period of my life. I modeled while I was in college and continued while I earned my master's degree. If nothing else, it paid the bills but, having to fend off the advances of so many men, it was too fast of a life for me. Now, more able to go with the flow, I'm a public school teacher."
"That's an interesting career path going from modeling to teaching. I wish I had a teacher who looked like you when I was in school. All my teachers, including the women had mustaches," I said with a laugh.
"Well, I don't have a mustache," she said laughing. "When I was modeling, they wanted to put me under contract, but I thought better of it. Between the catcalls and the rejections, I modeled enough to know that it wasn't the profession for me. Besides, I didn't want to move to New York and throw myself in the fast life of fresh fashion photographers, pushy agents, and impromptu invitations to parties that I'd regret going to the next day. A career that usually ends at thirty-years-old, I'm glad I stayed in school and finished my education."
"A teacher, huh? That's weird. My girlfriend was a special needs teacher. She taught children who had Autism and was returning to school to finish her Master's degree."
"That' an admirable profession. I don't have the patience for that, I'm afraid. The kids that I teach test my patience enough without trying to teach children with special physical and emotional needs. I don't know how someone can teach children with so many difficulties to overcome. What was her name?"
"Lynn."
"Lynn? No kidding, that's a weird coincidence. My mother's name is Lynn. Named after her, my middle name is Lynn. My real name is Katherine Lynn, but ever since I was a little girl everyone called me Kate and it stuck. For some reason, maybe because it was my Mom's name, I always liked the name Lynn and wished she had named me that, instead of Katherine. Lynn rolls easier off the tongue than Kate," she said looking at me with those eyes.