Dispatches from Home – Blanche from Laurel, Mississippi.

Greetings!

What a delightful afternoon! Sitting alone at the Biloxi Half Shell Oyster House, imagine my surprise when a lovely young lady suddenly appeared, as if out of the blue, and said, “Sir, may I sit and have lunch with you? You look like an older version of someone I knew and loved, long, long ago.”

Of course, I stood and said, “Yes, my dear. How kind of you to visit me in my loneliness.”

She said her name was Blanche and that she was from Laurel, Mississippi. As we sipped lemon-drop martinis and enjoyed our Oyster Rockefeller, the afternoon slowly melted away, time seemingly standing still. We pondered the cosmos, theater, art, and the meaning of life and love.

Late afternoon shadows were dancing through the windows when she smiled and said, “When I don’t want realism, I can count on you for magic!” I blinked, and then, as if in a dream, I looked up, and she had vanished, the evocative scent of rosewater lingering in the air.

All I could think to say was, “Whoever you were, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers…”

(Originally posted April 6, 2022)