Clarity of View

I met the man on a flight across the Pacific Ocean.  He wore a dark suit and had hair pulled into a long straight ponytail.  He was fifty-something.  Tall.  Friendly.

We talked easily, openly.

“Montana,” I said when he asked where I came from.

“I know Montana,” he remarked.  “I was stationed at Malmstrom Airforce Base while in the air force.  Big sky country.  You know, the sky really is bigger there.  It has to do with the clarity of view.”

We soon established we knew someone in common in Montana.  I had met the person, at least.

That’s Montana.

I learned the man worked and a cinematographer.  Mostly Documentaries.   “I am in a relationship with one of my daughter’s friends,” he told me not long after.  “She’s twenty years younger and gorgeous.   I didn’t plan it.  She kept turning up.  One day, she says, ‘Are you going to take me to bed, or not?’”

“Yes, you did,” I suggested.

“Yes, I did.”

“How is your daughter dealing with this?”

He thought for a moment.  “These things take time.”

“Has to do with clarity of view,” I said.

— Mitchell Hegman