The Way I See It

June 13, 1998

Okay Michael...turn off the camera...it's over...I'm done>>>

The next morning Ha and I drove four hours to my house in Virginia. My car radio didn't work so I kept hitting it to make the volume go down but it wouldn't go back up again. Ha told me Brent was irritable and she couldn't have long conversations with him about opinionated questions because he would stop them and say,"That's just your opinion!"
The last time she'd been on the road was years earlier when she and her two college friends went to Florida. One, close friend, Victor, was from Macedonia. She said he was the most kind person she'd ever known and she loved him as a very close friend.

We laughed a lot for the first hour and then she fell asleep in the car. We got to the house, she left Brent a message, then she and I crashed in the living room and watched a movie and a video of the 483 kilometer bicycle ride I did in 1987. We went to see my old boss, Mike Geary. He was the one who'd arranged lunch with my old office, but I'd cancelled out to see Ha instead. We ate Rice Krispy treats. Then I took her to the Langley AFB I and showed her my old office building.

All the local motels were full so we drove up to Williamsburg, Virginia and found a place. We ran across the street in the dark to Pizza Hut, all the while trying to make each other laugh by being silly. We brought the stuffed moose in and sat him on the table. Ha had a long-sleeve green shirt on that made her look absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t stop staring. I told her she looked very nice but she was really breath taking, like an angel.

At the motel we talked about running and she showed me stretches she did in high school. As we sat on the floor going over them, I knew this was something I’d never forget. Then we climbed into our separate beds and talked more. She told me I was fun, not moody as she thought I'd be. I was where I

belonged in the world, so why would I be sad? She talked of her brother, Long, whom she adored. She had tears running down her cheeks as she spoke of him.

The next day we were to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (one of the engineering marvels of the world) and back to Fayetteville, but Williamsburg was pleasant, so we drove up to Jamestown. We walked for hours talking about the monuments, making fun of people, and looking for four leaf clovers. She'd find one and give it to me, it would get old and she'd find another. We drove back to Williamsburg and walked around there for an hour doing the same. She seemed at peace, like the time away from Fayetteville was badly needed. We went to a restaurant and another movie. The movie was "Sudden Impact", about a comet striking earth. There was a scene at the end where a father and his estranged daughter reconciled, and stood on the beach holding each other as a huge tidal wave came in to end their lives. It was the best scene in the movie. The rest was forgettable.

At the motel we had a question and answer session but I was running dry on conversation, so I asked her if she found me attractive (I can't believe I asked that!). I was so insecure and just wanted to know she liked me or something because I was so smitten at the time I thought I'd lose my mind. She passed on the question, but said the least attractive quality of a man is a temper.

The next day we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and kept going. Neither said anything about turning around or returning to Fayetteville as originally planned. She said her business would be fine without her. When we were at a Hardees, we looked at a map to decide where to go next. She had no ideas, and we shot a few ideas back and forth with no decision. So I said,"We're going to Alexandria. Four hours later, we rolled into Alexandria.