A Life in Pictures

"A...connection?"

"Yes."

"Based on...."

"Perfect Strangers. Cousin Balki. For starters."

It took her a second to recall the show and their very brief interaction.

"Mr...Micah. Please."

"I'm not a flirt, and I don't do this kind of thing. It's just that I can't shake the belief that you and I...share something."

Before she could respond he said, "You have my number, Summer. Please give me a call if you agree with me."

She wasn't sure how she was going to reply if had asked her out, but he heard Sherri's heels clicking on the tile floor, so he scurried back to his chair and sat down just as she saw him making that a moot point.

"The doctor will right here," Sherri announced in that oh-so-cheery tone of voice.

"Great! Thank you."

"You're very welcome, Micah. I'm happy to help. In fact, I'd be happy to...."

"Mr. Wells. You're back!" they all heard the optometrist say.

"Yes, and thank you. The prescription in both is spot on. Perfect."

"That makes me very happy. I'm sorry we had to do the recheck, but next time we'll know, right?"

She smiled, he laughed, then told her she was right and said, "Push the plus!"

She laughed, too, and told him that was correct.

"Are my two favorite opticians taking good care of you?"

"Yes indeed. They're great. Both of them."

He emphasized 'both' so much that Summer allowed herself to smile. She'd been thinking about his invitation, and that one word made her decision. He wasn't pushy or cocky, two things she hated in men. But he was decisive, and that was a trait she admired. Were he older, probably a lot older, she'd likely even agree to a date. But he wasn't, so she couldn't.

But because he seemed like a genuinely nice person, she'd call him, meet for coffee or something simple and be done with it. That would take care of that, and it would preclude any more potential friction with Sherri who was obviously crushing on him.

"They're both very good which is why I hired them, and I'm very happy to know that you're happy," the eye doc said.

"I am. And again, thank you so much."

She told him he was most welcome and that she'd see him in a year, and with that she was ready for her next patient.

Summer was unable to avoid listening in but didn't say a word. When Micah got up to leave, Sherri asked him if she could ask him a personal question. That was a no-no if it involved what Summer correctly assumed it was going to involve.

"Sure."

"I...well, I was wondering...are you possibly seeing anyone? Currently?"

"No. No one."

"Oh, okay. So...I was wondering if we could maybe, you know, get together sometime. Nothing formal. Just maybe...talk."

"Um, that sounds nice, but while I'm not seeing anyone there is someone I'm interested in."

He paused for a moment then said a bit louder, "Very interested. I'm actually hoping to hear from here soon. Maybe even today with any luck."

"I see," a very dejected Sherri said. "So, okay, if that's how it is then...I understand."

Micah was in an awkward spot, but he handled it well as he told Sherri how great she was before thanking her and taking the new eyewear as he left.

Once he was gone Summer asked her co-worker if she was okay.

"I suppose. I knew he was out of my league, but he's just SO nice!"

Summer would have agreed as Micah was a nice man, but with what she knew that Sherri didn't she only told her that if she needed to talk she could do so anytime.

The younger woman ignored her and said, "I don't why I keep trying to meet men like Micah. You'd think by now I'd learn my lesson, but it's okay to dream, right?"

Summer didn't say anything this time, either. Sherri didn't really need her to. She just needed to talk until it all came out, which, to Summer's chagrin, didn't happen for nearly an hour.

That evening she thought about following through on her earlier decision, but after listening to Sherri go on and on about Micah, men in general, and her bad luck with them, she decided to leave well enough alone.

When two more days passed without hearing from Micah, Summer felt like the issue was behind her, and she felt relieved. Mostly. She'd thought about him so many times since he asked her to call him that he was starting to get inside her head. Had he called her, assuming he could get her number, she wasn't sure what she'd have done. Now, however, she didn't need to worry about it.

She was online that evening, mostly on Instagram where the majority of her friends spent their time. Just before going to bed she switched over to Facebook and saw a friend request. It never crossed her mind it could be from Micah, but when she opened it she felt her heart skip a beat, something she attributed to surprise.

She looked at the request for a few seconds. Then, out of curiosity, she clicked on his profile and began looking around. She went to his photos and found his life neatly arranged in albums labeled 'Early Childhood', 'Teen Years', etc. They were also in chronological order and spelled out his life in pictures.

They seemed typical until she got to 'High School' but even there they were still typical...for the best looking boy in school who was also his football team's quarterback and star pitcher on the baseball team. He was the class valedictorian, to boot, and those plus many other accomplishments got him into his dream school. West Point.

For some reason she was more than surprised to learn that he'd graduated from the US Military Academy. She was even more surprised to learn that he'd been a helicopter pilot because of his vision.

Like most people, she didn't know the requirements, but a pilot had to have no worse than 20/50 vision correctable to 20/20.

Shortly into the album entitled 'USMA' she saw a sub-folder that was called 'Pain'. It started with a clipping from a newspaper. It told the story or how he'd lost his mother, his sister, and the girl loved in a horrendous car accident during Plebe summer just 23 days after he arrived at West Point.

The loss was so crushing that he shut it, and everything else in his life, out, except for becoming an Army officer. He studied relentlessly. He played football with an insane level of abandon. He ate, slept, and breathed West Point as it was the only thing he had left that mattered.

Yes, his father was still alive, but he'd abandoned his family when Micah was just 12 which explained why his albums were plastered with pics of his dad and then suddenly stopped never to reappear.

There were photos of Micah and his buddies in flight school then in a helicopter squadron. The last and final photo was of a burned out Apache helicopter and a clipping from the Army Post's newspaper with a headline that read: "Apache Pilot Lone Survivor in Night Training Accident."

The article explained what happened and how another helo in the same landing zone as he was at night set down too close. Rotor blades collided at nearly 300 RPMs each, ripping into metal and flesh in an instant, setting fire to both aircraft in just seconds. Miraculously, Micah walked away with nothing but a concussion and a mild burn on his left shoulder.

Summer didn't know there were tears running down her face until one of them fell on the desk where she was sitting.

"Wow," she said quietly out loud as she reached for a tissue as two more fell.

"How can anyone be so optimistic and friendly after all that?" she wondered as she continued looking through his photos. She stopped when she suddenly felt like she was being a voyeur, peering into his life without permission, seeing the darkest chapters of his time on earth when she had no business doing so.

She closed the laptop then sat and continued to try and imagine going on in the face of so much heartache. She wasn't sure she'd have been able to do it let alone thrive in a place so competitive and demanding as West Point. And then being the only person to survive an accident like that? Summer thought she probably would have curled up in a ball and hoped the world would go away. Micah stood up straight and tall and took everything it had to give and never backed down. And he was so kind, polite, and friendly.

She looked to see what time it was, and without thinking it through any further she dialed his number.

Summer wasn't in his contacts so Micah saw 'Unknown Caller' but answered it hopefully.

"Summer?" he said having no idea who it was.

"Hi. I...I'm not sure why I'm calling. I'd decided I wouldn't but...."

"Whatever the reason I'm really glad you did."

She had to come clean and told him why she was calling and apologized for 'eavesdropping' like that.

"It's okay. I don't keep my photos private as I have nothing to hide, and it looks like there's a benefit to that, too."

She could tell he was smiling, and she loved his soft, quiet tone of voice. To say she was surprised to feel like that was an understatement. But she was, and she now needed to know why he seemed interested in her as she couldn't come up with a single reason why he would.

"I'll tell you although you'll most likely think I'm either making it up or a little...touched."

He laughed quietly when he said that and it made her smile.

"I can assure I'm not 'touched' or crazy or anything like that, but I do have this kind of...sixth sense that lets me know who someone is. I've been wrong before, and I hope this doesn't sound haughty, but I'm rarely am wrong."

"And this 'sixth sense' of yours. What is it telling you?" she asked even though she didn't believe in anything but her five senses.

"I'll tell you but not over the phone," he replied in that calm, baritone voice that had a masculine, soothing quality to it. "This is something I want to say to you in person."

It was only 8:35pm, and against her better judgment, Summer said, "You're welcome to stop by if you'd like. I'm normally up until midnight, so...."

She didn't finish her sentence before Micah, who was also a night owl, said, "You see. We have that in common. I'm telling you, I'm onto something."

She heard that little laugh again, and as before, she smiled then gave him her address, something she'd never done before in her life even with men she'd known much better than Micah.

"I'll be there in 15 minutes if that's okay."

"Yes. That's fine. See you then."

"Summer? I'm glad you called."

"I am, too. I think," she replied with a small laugh of her own.

She thought about changing clothes, but Micah wasn't some kind of potential suitor. Even so, she brushed her hair and touched up her mascara and put on a shade of lipstick that was barely noticeable and left it at that. None of those things were necessary, either, but she did them anyway.

Her place was always clean, and she rarely even left a dish out, so there wasn't anything to straighten or clean. She just sat back down and waited.

Summer had a grandfather clock that ticked, but she was so used to it she rarely ever noticed it. But as it got closer to the 15-minute mark it sounded louder by the second so that when the doorbell rang it startled her.

She peeked through the side window then opened the door.

"Hi," Micah said with a warm smile as he waited to be invited in.

Summer did just that and asked him to have a seat.

"Would you care for anything to drink?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

She sat down across from him and waited for him to speak.

"Um...I would think that after looking through my photos you know a lot more about me than I do you," he began.

It was a very good ice breaker, and Summer felt more at ease. She then remembered the photos and all she'd seen and that, in turn, caused her to remember why she'd called him.

"You've experienced so much, Micah. And I apologize again for snooping."

"I'm glad you looked."

"Micah, I'm so very sorry you lost your family. I honesty cannot imagine that and how awful it would be."

He thanked her and didn't mention that the only girl he'd ever loved died, too, as there was nothing to be gained by bringing it up. But then again, she'd seen his photos and had to know.

"Then there was...the accident. With the helicopters."

"Second worst day of my life," he told her without expecting any sympathy.

"You're much braver than me," Summer told him. "As I looked through your...life in pictures...I thought to myself that I would have crumbled and given up."

"I won't pretend those major life events weren't difficult. They were incredibly hard. But as Mary Shelley said, "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."

"And you know poetry."

"No. Only a few lines that have made an impression on me. That was one of them. I read it my senior year in high school, and when I did it really hit home as I thought about my dad walking out on us. That was my first great and sudden change."

"And then the loss of your mother and...."

"I held onto that line for dear life when a chaplain came to my room with a colonel at 2:30 in the morning."

"Micah. I am so very sorry."

"Thank you. It also helped me get through losing three of my best friends when they and several other soldiers in the LZ were injured, too. One of them died a week later."

She didn't ask what "LZ" meant as she'd pieced it together from the article that used the full term of landing zone.

"Micah, I don't even know what to say."

"That's okay. I didn't come here to recount my 'woes'. I really just wanted to get to know you better."

"Based on your sixth sense," she said with a little laugh, feeling at ease with him now.

"What can I say? It's a gift."

He said it so seriously it made her laugh.

"You still haven't told me what it's telling you about me."

"You still haven't agreed to go out with me," he replied with a smile and a raised eyebrow that made her smile, too.

"And you still haven't asked me."

Summer wasn't sure why she said those words, but she'd essentially just agreed that she would go out with him. If he asked.

"Summer? Would you go on a date with me sometime very soon?"

Not quite so sure now she asked him a question in return.

"A date. Wow. I know when you were born thanks to...."

"My life in pictures?" he replied with a laugh as he used her words.

"Yes. But you should know I was born in...1982."

He sat back a little and looked at her as though he was studying her face.

"That's weird."

"What? What's...weird?"

"You don't look like a fossil. I mean, you're trying to make it sound like you are, but...you don't."

He said it quietly and seriously, and when he got the words out she laughed.

"A fossil???"

"Well, yeah. Way back then, didn't you have stone tablets and...Walkmen?"

Summer couldn't help but laugh and did so as she remembered her older brother getting one for his 10th birthday. She wanted to listen to her own music tapes and bugged him constantly to let her borrow it which he rarely did. But on those occasions when he did, she was in heaven listen to Debbie Gibson and Michael Jackson.

"Okay. Point taken," she said with another laugh.

"So will you? Will you go out with me?"

She was 41 and he was 27, and yet she felt like he'd done more and lived more and experienced more than she ever had and likely ever would. It was impossible for her to understand everything she was feeling, but she knew she wanted to say 'yes'.

Even so, she had one more card to play.

"You know Sherri has the biggest crush on you, right?"

"I know you work together, and I'm not trying to make your life harder, Summer, but I don't want to go out with Sherri. I'm sure she's wonderful, but l don't see her like that."

He seemed to be doing more than just looking at her. It felt like he was...peering...into her soul as he said, "I do, however, very much want to get to know you."

"When she finds out, my life will most definitely get harder," she said, trying to not sound like she was whining or complaining. "But I'm a big girl, and while I still can't explain why, I think I may like you, too. So...yes. I'll go out with you."

"You have no idea how happy that makes me," Micah told her a huge smile breaking out on his handsome face.

"I don't have a sixth sense, but I may possibly have 'women's intuition', and for the life of me I don't know why it's telling me to trust you."

She looked at him, smiled then said, "But...I do."

"I give you my word I won't ever betray your trust," he told her, words she couldn't imagine coming from any other man, and were to come out of someone else's mouth, she wasn't sure she'd believe them. But she did believe them when he said them.

After establishing that they both wanted to see each other socially neither of them could think of anything more to say, so Micah thanked her giving him some time to talk to her, and she thanked him before showing him out.

"Before deciding what to do on our first date," he began before being interrupted.

"Our...first date?"

"Yes. First of many, I hope."

She sort of shook her head but couldn't help smiling just a little.

"You're not from here, are you?"

"No. I'm from Michigan originally. Born and raised."

She laughed then said, "Educated, too, at Michigan State. Where my son goes to college."

Now Micah laughed.

"Trying to scare me off, eh? Sorry, that's not gonna work."

"Well, a girl's gotta try, right?"

Summer's smile was killing him as he explained why he asked.

"How long have you live in Beautiful Bangor?"

"Let's see. Um...that would be about three months."

"Ah, okay. So have you seen the sites yet?"

"Bangor has sites?" she asked in mock surprise.

"Yes. Lots of them. They aren't very exciting, but we do have them."

"I see. Go on," she said as though this was extremely interesting, and to be honest, she was very much enjoying it.

"Now that I know why you don't have a Mainer's accent, and that you haven't see everything Bangor has to offer, I'll call or text you with the when and where later tonight or tomorrow, if that's okay."

He stressed 'everything' so hard it made her laugh.

"You're even more beautiful when you smile," Micah said out of the blue.

His words caught her off guard but they also...warmed her.

Micah knew that by the way she reacted. Rather than 'pour it on' he said it was probably time to leave her alone. Summer looked at him for a second and almost asked him to stay, but her 'better self' told her that was a bad idea, so she agreed and told him it probably was.

She walked him to the door where there was an awkward moment before they kinda, sorta hugged as they said 'goodnight'.

For his part, Micah was as happy as he could remember being for quite some time. He was even singing along with the music his car stereo was playing on the way home.

Summer, however, wasn't singing. She was wondering how she could have let herself get talked into going on a date with someone who was essentially 15 years younger than her.

It didn't help when she told herself that technically it was 'only' 14. She could now readily admit that she liked him. She also knew that she respected him and maybe even admired him. But it was nearly impossible to imagine ever being anything more than friends with him. The funny thing was, in spite of her very reasonable concerns, she was excited about this...date...or whatever it was, and that only confused her even more.

She tried reading a book that had had her spellbound but couldn't even get interested it. She turned on the television, but there wasn't anything interesting to watch. Getting exasperated with feeling exasperated, her phone chimed.

The happiness she felt when she saw a text from Micah was a very pleasant and very big surprise.

"I think I have a plan. To see the sites with you. On our date. Our...first date."

She smiled happily when she read it then replied, "A plan. What kind of plan?"