Serendipity

11:35 a.m. In a small southern city, two young professionals walked out of their respective office towers at precisely the same time.  The man, an engineer, headed toward the south to Ralph’s Downtown Deli for his usual lunch.  The woman, a lawyer who normally ate at her desk, headed to the Post Office to mail a package to her Auntie in Nashville.

11:39 a.m.  Both the man and the woman stopped for a moment.  The man bent down and picked up a penny on heads (for luck) and the woman got caught at the traffic light at the intersection of Capitol and Main.  Each looked at their watch and began walking precisely one minute later.

11:42 a.m. The man ran into an old friend he knew from college and said hello.  The woman noticed her reflection in a building and adjusted her skirt.  Both turned a corner and were now heading directly toward each other.

11:45 a.m. The man looked up (he normally walked with his head down due to a clumsy habit of tripping over his own feet) and saw the woman who was approaching him.  The woman, who had turned her head to the right to admire the beautiful mural on the local building, turned her head and saw the man. At that moment they made eye contact. That was when it happened.

Both saw their future together.  He saw her giving him her phone number. And then their first date. It was a romantic dinner and then a play. And then they both felt the electricity of their first kiss. Of the warmth of the other’s lips and the connection between them. She saw him get down on one knee and ask for her hand. He saw her beauty as she walked down the aisle all dressed in white.  She felt the pain and the ecstasy of the birth of their first child, a little boy. He felt the pain as she squeezed his hand during labor. She watched as their first born went into school for the first time. He smelled the aroma as he changed the diaper of their second child, a little girl.

Time begin to fly faster as they continued to stare at each other.  Soon their children were graduating from college. Their son was in medical school. Their daughter was top at her law school just like her mother was so many years ago.  Their son soon graduated and went into oncology research.  Their daughter began practicing law and became a defense lawyer. Their son pioneered a breakthrough in cancer research saving millions of lives.  Their daughter freed several innocent men and women wrongly on death row.

A car horn blared and the connection was broken.

They looked at each other for a second and realized they were about to run in to each other.

11:46 a.m. The man (not having the courage to act on what he just saw) just said, “Excuse me.” The woman (who also lacked the courage to act) just said, “I’m sorry.”  Both walked around each other and headed on their way.  They never saw each other again.

And at that precise moment, the world was changed forever.