got up real early yesterday to queue for free shakespeare in the park tickets. saw this woman in front of me circling select train schedules in a eurail guidebook. suddenly show-offy, told her i backpacked around europe years ago. she was unmoved. asked me instead, "met anyone interesting?" was stumped.
remembered the on-time, antiseptic train rides, the neatly ripped museum tickets, glossy pictures of spotless, unpeopled streets. remembered being in europe and thinking all things not of europe.
that night, during the show (a musical adaptation of shakes' ramshackle five-act, first play "two gentlemen of verona"), the woman sat five rows down from me. thought saw her wince when the hunky valentine yielded his beloved, silvia, to his best friend proteus, a hint, perhaps, at his latent homoerotic desires.
thought of coming up to the woman during the break. on my way down, a latecomer asked me for help finding his seat. looked around for ushers but they were all gone taking breaks. his seat was the empty one beside mine.
