‘I AM FROM ILLINOIS TOO!’. Her rounded lips paused at too, pointed so enticingly at me. I almost want to jump out of my moving car and plant a big wet one on her sexy pucker. Perhaps I can invite her for a drink. It must have been some feeling for her to see an American car in Munich not bearing the green military license plates, instead to see the one from her home State. The way we are jammed into the traffic, it seems daunting if not impossible even to pull over and have her follow me.

Now that I know what she is saying, I break out in a big smile. I flash her a peace sign. She is smiling too and flashes back her two fingers in a V shape. We hold the gaze for a  couple of moments. The traffic has loosened up somewhat. Mission accomplished, she cracks one last smile at me and speeds away. I watch the taillight of her Mercedes Benz pulling away, feeling a certain sense of loss. It feels as if the freshly spun thread that links our two cars together is now  being un-spun, stretching and thinning in the middle.  As her car breaks  away and then disappears into the distance, I feel a slight tug at the thread snapping, leaving me behind with a sudden sharp tear in my heart.

© Haresh Shah

Illustration: Celia Rose Marks

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Next Friday, November 15, 2013

THE 50TH PLAYBOY STORY

Believe it or not, my next blog entry not only notches up number 50, but add to that two weeks of spring hiatus, it also marks a whole year since I began posting these stories. So what do I have in store for this landmark anniversary post? Honestly, I don’t know. I do have a couple of things that I have been working on, but sometimes to bring them to full boil, you have to let them simmer at their own pace. In the meanwhile, something else always pops up. And so it will. Stay tuned:)

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