Michelle is unlike any person I have ever met in as much as that from the very first time that I met her she made me feel comfortable. This may seem like an odd thing to say but, for me, it meant a great deal. I'm not good with people, I don't want to get to know them and in very general terms I don't like them. When I meet a new person I often wait until I have someone with me in order that they can take the lead in the conversation and I can stay in the background watching, listening and learning. I watch for facial expressions, listen to tone of voice and judge what kind of person they are before I entertain the notion that I might get to like them. I class myself as an excellent judge of character, by watching and listening I can gauge a person a several levels, detecting why they move like that, or said something in such a way and I mark it all down in my invisible score card. I don't know what the score card says or even how it's marked but Michelle ticked all the boxes in minutes in a way that I've never been able to explain.
The best and quickest way to mark my score card is to watch a person interact with David. David is my best friend (one of the two best friends I'm lucky to have) he is forthright in a way that is almost combative, he likes to joke at your expense (never cruel and mostly impersonal) and his own barometer as to whether you and he will get along is if you can laugh along and give as good as you get. David's barometer is much harsher than mine and far less forgiving but his imposing introduction is effective and efficient.
David and I met Michelle long ago and the inns and out of what was said has been lost in time. What I do remember about our first meeting though was that after laughing off a few of David's jokes about her, at the time, partially blue hair, Michelle turned to me and said "You're Craig Ambrose." As it turns out this first meeting, the first meeting I can remember, was not our first at all. It turned out that I had been at school with Michelle for a full year; Primary Six.
I could not remember her at all but this was not uncommon for me. I was 17 at the time and at some point long before the memories of much of my early childhood was lost to me. I had been the fat kid at school until 2nd year when I grew tall and broad. I became someone else for the first time when I grew and what had been before seemed and still seems like a past life. Michelle talked to me that day about our interactions from that our life as children. About races at the swimming and missing dinner tickets and the sullen little boy she knew but barely spoke to. At some point we noticed a Yin/Yang pendant in the room and had a good natured argument about which side represented earth and which represented water (we both still maintain that we were correct). When we spoke it was like we were the only two people in the room. The room belonged Margaret and David Hamilton and was at the time occupied by their two sons Mark and Andrew, the former of whom was know to all as Sparkie and who is the other person I call my best friend. It was David who spoke and pulled Michelle and I out of our solitary back and forth. "Can't believe it Sparkie," he said with a smile "Craig's stealing your bird".
To be continued.
THIS WEEK
I Watched: - Undeclared: The Complete Series, Knocked Up, A Beautiful Mind, Lions for Lambs.
I Read: - Indigo Slam by Robert Crais.
I listened to: - The Age of Understatement by The Last of the Shadow Puppets.
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