Browning ... the tie guy ... a story
07/02/2002 04:00 a.m.
I was thinking about it today (I don't know why) but it's a really good story. Koye and I were just sitting there waiting for chapel to start. I was marveling at the fact that Koye's been a boy for about seventeen years and yet he's never learned how to tie a tie. That just struck me as very odd. And so we were talking about that and this voice chimes in. A voice we'd never heard before. And Koye looked at me with this terrified look... I think we were both wondering if the other had heard the voice. We're kind of paranoid about being crazy. It wouldn't have been the first time either of us had heard a voice that wasn't totally real. Lucky for the both of us we turned around and saw the boy who'd spoken. He was reading (automatically a red flag goes up here... a reader... ah...). The sun was behind his head so it was one of those overly dramatic moments that you see on TV and think "geez, that never happens" but it did just then. And he said something about it actually not being so strange that someone didn't know how to tie a tie. Koye, being industrious and somewhat outgoing, asked the guy to tie his tie for him. The boy's name was Browning. He tried at first to explain how to tie it but eventually gave up when he got himself confused. And then he was gone. Truthfully, we hadn't found out his name at that point. We were calling him "the tie guy" for obvious reasons. And when we realized that this guy was some sort of tie-tying angelic being, we couldn't find him. We looked all over the place but there was no trace of the tie guy. Dejected, we went to chapel. Throughout the service we looked in vain for a sign of him. Later in the day it was time for dinner. I was still looking for the tie guy, but I may have been the only one. Then... it happened... we were looking for a table to sit at... there he was... the tie guy. And we basically swooped on him and demanded seats. He surrendered them warning us that he was very antisocial and we might not get a whole lot of interesting conversation out of him. I'm not sure if he was lying or if he just wanted us to leave, but conversation poured out of him. All kinds of things. Things that made no sense. Offensive things. Silly things. And we talked about those things until we were dragged away. (by a very bored and then angry Jonna) Koye gave him his email address, but in my mind it was one of those things that don't last long. Like you meet a person, drain out all of what they are and then the relationship is over. That's how I saw it. And there is nothing wrong with a relationship like that. I still think about the tie guy sometimes. Wonder what he's doing. Saving other guys fumbling to tie their ties? It could happen. And maybe I was wrong at the beginning - maybe that wasn't a really good story. But it is a good memory. I think I'll keep it...
I am currently Silly
I am listening to "Fast as You Can" by Fiona Apple