Silver Bracelet

There it sits, my silver cuff bracelet. About three inches wide with cut out circles all around the band. If I do not wear it for a long time it gets tarnished.

I see it everyday, in the visible place where I keep some of my favorite jewelry. Sometimes the power of my thoughts about it are very strong, sometimes not. My furthest thoughts, while not acknowledging its presence, can stir something in me. That faded away day, when I purchased it several years ago, rings strong inside stored away memories.

It is not so much the bracelet itself. It is more the event surrounding its acquisition. The woman, a perfect stranger in the store, began to speak to my sister and I about living in Manhattan. I was intrigued by the idea of that. I once lived in the village of La Jolla and know what it is like to live among tourist and locals. I believe I could have, at some point in my life, lived in Manhattan. Experiencing all the wonder and taste of that fine city. She spoke to me in many ways. Not knowing what an impact she and that unforgettable conversation in a Manhattan boutique, would hold for me.

Lets start with me walking outside of the store, on a perfect fall day in Manhattan. I have my glossy, fancy bag with red velvet handles, dangling from my wrist. The pretty purple tissue paper peeking out the top, surrounding my newest bauble.
My sister, waiting for me outside, was also witness to the perfect stranger. The three of us sharing a bond in a small time frame of life.
Oh! The joining of my sister outside the store is also a vivid snapshot. This is why I digress from the main point of my story. Equally memorable but not in the same way.
Sissy has a sort of befuddled look upon her face. As if dumbstruck. She is pointing to a tall good looking young man who is walking away from her. He turns back to us with a smile and I see he is chuckling to himself. I only caught a glimpse of him as she pointed and stammered abut the man walking away with the amused look on his face.
So, she says she thinks she just, literally, bumped into Josh Grobin. She is only kind of certain and tells me when she ran into him, she looks up at his face and tries to say something to him but no words come out of her mouth. He does not say anything either. He just steps out of her way and keeps walking. He is also looking a bit sympathetic towards her. A slightly off balance moment for all of us.
By the way, it is Josh Grobin. Not only did I get a good look at him. I find out, later in the day, he was on The Today Show that morning. Which just happens to be right around the corner of where this random act took place.
Sissy and I discuss this light hearted incident. We go back and forth about, "could it really have been him"? "Naw, impossible, it wasn't him". She is not as certain as I am. Even to this day, I know it was him.
After exhausting the Josh Grobin possibilities, we make our way back to reality of the day. We begin to talk about the lady we met earlier, inside the boutique.
I was trying on the silver bracelet. The woman next to me spoke and admired it along with me. She said I should buy it. We began chatting a bit. Sissy came over and joined in. It was agreed upon by the three of us. The silver shiny thing looked pretty on my wrist.
We began to find out a little bit more about this stranger. She seemed to be someone we would sit down with for lunch. Kind and easy to speak with. A feeling of kinship developed in those few moments in time.
She lived near by and grew up in the surrounding neighborhood. This interested me and made me curios about her life there. I learned all I could in that brief conversation. Her parting words are what have stayed with me all these years. Seven words that made a poignant statement, having both a question mark and exclamation point at the end of her sentence. "You know, they tried to kill us".
She gave us a small snapshot of being in Manhattan on September eleventh two thousand and one. Not just there in the city but there in her home. Devastating and frightening beyond conception of what transpired right here. A place where herself, neighbors, families and friends made their safe place to be.
We were parting ways, none of us said anything more. Sissy walked outside, I paid for my bracelet.
The Josh Grobin incident placed us in a different reality but when it subsided, we both spoke about her lasting words. We wished we had asked her to lunch.