Free Spirit, Part 2: Enter Paradoxical Jewish Guy

So one day, as Susan was sauntering up Loma Vista Avenue, on her way to the toy shop where Donna worked,  she was only slightly aware of the portly, reddish haired fellow who was walking a few yards ahead of her.  He vaguely reminded her of her brother Mark-----a good reason to be uninterested.   Not her type at all.  But then the fellow did something unexpected.  He turned around, right there on the sidewalk, and came a few steps towards her.  And he said, in a distinctive New England accent "Would you mind if I walked with you?"  Well.  What could a Free Spirit do but say yes?  "Oh, sure!"  she said.  "Why not?!"  They walked along together, exchanging pleasantries.  "I've never done this before."  he commented.  "Done what?" she asked.  "Asked a girl I don't know if I could walk with her."  He struck her as a little formal and somehow----different.  Definitely not a prospect.  "Oh, here we are!"  she said, as they approached the toy store.  In she went, waving goodbye with no idea what the next two weeks would bring.

Later that day, Donna told her that the same fellow had left something for her.  It was a piece of notebook paper with some kind of design on it, with a note inviting her to meet him at the pier that afternoon, and a flourishing signature.  Stuart.  S t u a r t????  Definitely not a cool name. (try not to write her off----she was twenty and had very little scope)  But as she and Donna squinted at the broken lines of the drawing, it suddenly came to her what it was-----a boy, sitting cross-legged, reaching up for a butterfly.  It filled the entire page.  Once she saw it, she wondered why she hadn't been able to make it out before.  It was strangely touching.  "Why not?" she thought, considering his invitation.  "I like artists."

At the pier, he was waiting on one of the benches that line the long finger of boardwalk that stretches out past the breakers.  It was blustery, with seagulls hanging suspended in the wind like a living mobile, held in place by the current of air.  They walked a little, and he had a lot to say----Susan didn't really understand a lot of his thoughts, but they seemed very spiritual and compelling.  She had never heard anyone talk like that----not even her last boyfriend, the one who had experimented with astral travel.   Stuart seemed to understand a lot about unseen forces.  But after an hour or so, Susan was ready to go home.  She said goodbye and didn't think twice about him.  Definitely not a prospect.

Imagine her surprise a few days later when the ladies at the Montessori school where she worked informed her that there was a fellow waiting out front for her.  "What does he look like?" she asked, apprehensively.  It was Stuart.  Susan did what any self-respecting Free Spirit would do when she detected obligation----she ducked out the back door, through the garden!  But this Stuart fellow had a determined side-----he was waiting for her there at the exit, and she didn't know how to tell him to go away.  And so for the third time, they walked and talked.    And the strange thing is, some of it was starting to make sense to her.  Just like the drawing.

Next time:  Guru