Meeting JJ part 3

Meeting JJ part 3
Was it April fools day? Since I don’t remember the date. Since it was the beginning of April. Lets call it April fools day. The day I embarked on the foolish adventure called love. The sun was warm. The daffodils were in bloom. The dogwood trees just beginning to bud, held court over trees that are less enigmatic. Both wafted in the gentle breeze of spring. There was no dog nipping at my heal, but I was poised to step over the precipice just the same.

As I came out of the student center, I saw JJ sitting next to a fountain. The air was rich with the smell of new growth and seeds that wanted germinating. That poor sorry fountain was just a rectangle painted blue with water squirting up. But to me it was my first stride into the depths. He was playing a recorder. His trilling flute sounds mingled with the sound of the bubbling fountain. I flipped off my sandals, stepped into the fountain and danced. I danced across the water floating and spinning on the new spring warmth. I sat down next to the pied piper. We spoke with innocence about the weather, the flowers and the beauty of the day. Then he asked me, “Would you like to go on a picnic?”
“Where?”
“I found a new place out in the woods. It is already my favorite place in all the world.”
“What should we take?” After some thought, we decided we would get bread and cheese and fruit and wine. This is my favorite meal from then until now.
His communication skills about the subtleties of feminine comfort were limited at best. Most people believe they are being understood when they are not being understood. I believed I was being understood. I told JJ, “I am going to wear my sandals.” This meant, “I expect you to take me to a place where a girl can walk in sandals.” This meant, “If you are taking me somewhere that sandals are not appropriate, tell me now and I will wear boots.” He did not know that I was asking him if sandals were a good idea. He did not know that I would wear hiking boots if necessary. He was in a daze and unable to understand my cryptic world of woman speak.
I ran back to my dorm room to change into “picnic clothes”
“I am going on a picnic in the woods with a guy I have been trying to get to ask me on a date for weeks!” I was excited and breathless. My roommate was not impressed.
“Bonnie, what do you know about this boy? That’s no place for a date!”
“I’ll be fine!” I was very naive. I was a fool dancing swiftly over the edge.
I flew down the steps in my sandals and met JJ near his old blue Honda. We went to a delicatessen and bought some cheep white wine, cheese, rolls and fruit.
JJ took me to a back road that twisted along side Tools Creek as it makes its way toward the North Fork of the Holston River. The trees were brown and beginning to bud. They over hanged the winding country road forming a tunnel of meandering potential. He pulled over to the side of the road and we walked down to the creek carrying our picnic fare. JJ intended to ford the stream and climb up the side of a mountain. There were no trails or handrails. This was a good place for a rabbit to have a picnic. Did he not get the message about my shoes?
“I don’t think I can get across that creek.”
JJ agreed that I would need help. He carried me across the watery threshold of the hill beyond with the care one might give delicate china. Climbing the mountain was a total body experience. My feet slipped in and out of those sandals while I grabbed onto trees and rocks. We climbed up to a flat place where we could spread out our deli bounty.
We ate and talked and JJ spoke to me the poetry of the golden section and of the Fibonacci sequence. (He may have thrown in some Bob Dylan.) All I saw was gold and jewels coming out of his mouth.
“This is a man I could talk to forever.”
When you start to tumble off the edge of a cliff, there comes a point when you realize that there is nothing you can do to stop it. It is time to let go and plunge into the unknown. I don’t remember getting back to the dorm but I remember enjoying my fall into the web of his thoughts.