TheBanyanTree: Billy King

[NancyIee at aol.com]

A couple of years ago, I regularly attended the church Wednesday evening  
dinners.  Anyone could come, no reservations needed, and they served a 
home-cooked meal for five dollars.  Since Wednesday evenings were also reserved for 
meetings and bible study classes, it was totally the custom to eat dinner first, 
socialize a bit, then go to the classes or choir practice, or whatever.
 
One such evening, I happened to sit next o a rather good-looking man with 
silver hair.  He turned to me and said, “I just wanted you to know that the first 
time I saw you, I thought you were the most stunningly beautiful woman I had 
ever seen.”
 
I thought he was hitting on me, but he wasn’t.  When I found he meant those 
words, I was flattered beyond belief.  Since that evening, the man and I became 
casual friends. He was kind, thoughtful, and a good friend.  He was the sort 
of man I could sit with and talk for hours on anything and not feel any gender 
tension, or that he was pushing for any more than friendship. It was a 
sincerely good friendship . .and still is.
 
A year or so after we met, he informed me he intended moving back north to be 
near his family. I was saddened, of course, but wished him well,  and we 
wrote back and forth, now and then.
 
One of his notes mentioned  our meeting, and his feelings about my beauty.  “
It was the costume, and your red hair all piled up. You looked like one of 
those beauties out of the Victorian era.”
 
Our correspondance continued, but never again mentioned my  “beauty.”
 
I never wore a costume such as he described. Thinking back, I recall a fancy 
dinner we both must have attended, where the waiters and waitresses dressed in 
lavish period costumes and sang and danced, ala a renaissance feast.
 
Perhaps he eventually realized I was not that red-haired beauty he saw. I 
certainly never said aye or nay.  Our friendship continues via letters and 
emails. I doubt we’ll see each other again, for now we live a thousand miles apart. 
Yet there is the friendship, and for a little while, I was stunningly 
beautiful.