Saturday, September 7, 1968, 8:55, five minutes to my blind date. I trudged up four flights, panting, pushed my hair off my sweating forehead, breathed into my hand (you know), popped a mint, then knocked and waited. 8:57, no answer. I knocked again, a soft rap. No answer. 8:58. I checked the right address. Yep, 1213 Elm, Apartment 4. I knocked again, forcefully. I mean, come on! 8:59, I heard rumblings inside the apartment. 9:00, the door opened like a gasp, I gawped, and my life changed. Day one of the rest of my life, 20,657 days all in awe.
Steve Gerson has published in CafeLit, Panoply, Crack the Spine, The Decadent Review, Vermilion, In Parentheses, Wingless Dreamer, Big Bend Literary Magazine, Coffin Bell, and more.