Along the way, this day or someday, I picked up a traveling companion, or should I say she picked me.
She was in her early twenties, from some place like Des Moines, and backpacking like me through Europe.
Forgot her name. Call her Frances since I was heading to France.
Frances was cheery and pretty enough even with the scruffiness that accompanies the constant traveler.
I must have seemed like a safe enough guy who would provide her with some superficial protection.
So she adopted me fairly quickly.
At Bremen, or some other crossroad, however, I snuck off the train and waved goodbye as the train pulled away.
Where are you going, she asked.
You don't want to go with me?
Have a good trip and a great life, I replied. Ciao!
Ah, the cruelty of the lone wolf.
Looking back, it may have been pleasant for a week or two, but traveling alone is a liberty a companion would shackle. Nevertheless, I have wondered ever since if she may have been a possible soul mate. Was she my opposite? Were we in sync? More powerfully self-evident than astrological configurations, are the so-called bio-rhythmic synchronizations. A couple can usually feel an immediate intimacy if born on each others' 23, 28, and 33 day cycles. Somehow related to moon phases, these cycles indicate with whom we are most relaxed (the 23 day cycle), for whom we are most emotionally passionate (the 28 day cycle), and with whom we are most likely to find a mental affinity (the 33 day cycle). Don't believe it. Try it. Use my java based bio-rhythm calculator to discover your sync links with friends and spouses. Click on vibes below. She thought so. Women usually know these things more instinctively than men. Guys look first at outer trimmings. Women feel more for the vibes.
The guilt. Somewhere in the world today there is a little ole lady spinster examining the worn-down backpack hanging in her closet these many years bemoaning Yeah...Right! what she may have said so horrible it ran me off so fast. I wish I could tell her now that it had nothing to do with her, but was totally due to my antsyness. And if there happens to be any little ole lady spinsters out there wherever right now reading this, then forgive the youth that once upon a time abandoned you. It was no fault of yours. You are better off without him for sure.
Was I asleep before Düsseldorf?...Probably.
I certainly never saw the scene above.
