The Meaning of Magical Meetings

About a week or so ago when I was returning to my safe, quiet, little island from Vancouver,I decided that I would just take a ferry to Swartz Bay and then turn around and take the 30-minute ferry from Swartz Bay back to Fulford Harbour on Salt Spring. It's what people do when they live on Salt Spring to work around the fact that there are very few NON STOP sailings from Tsawwassen to Long Harbour at any time of day that makes sense.

If I leave at 2 pm I think to myself all naively, I'll be home in time for dinner. Fifteen minutes onto the boat,sitting looking out the window at Tsawwassen and suddenly there's an announcement.

"This is the captain speaking. I need to inform you that there is a small car fire on the car deck. Please be sure to follow the directions of the crew and I will get back to you with more information."

I'm sitting there thinking does he mean there's a small car on fire or there's a small fire as a result of a big car because hey, one is much worse than the other.

My next thought is oh no, it better not be beside MY car. I left MY computer in MY car. When you're poor, out of necessity, you become quite self centered. I don't care what happens to the 565 other cars on the boat just as long as mine remains intact.

Next announcement. This is the captain. I'm asking everyone to move to the forward lounge.

I start walking toward the lounge and after about 10 minutes of standing there I think to myself, I'm getting the hell out of here.

I decide it would be better to be out on the deck. So, that's where I go. Sure enough. Next annoucement?

"We are evacuating the ship. Please wait for the announcement and then vacate the ship from the forward lounge. Please enter into lounge four and five at the terminal and remain there. Thank you."

Everyone files out in an orderly manner and suddenly, like cattle, we are all crammed into the waiting area watching as smoke is billowing out of the left side of the ferry.

I sit down. I'm there for a bit. Suddenly a woman sits down beside me. I say something negative like, "I wonder how long this is going to take?" at which point she says, "Sometimes these delays have a way of turning out magical."

Magical? Did she just say magical? I think to myself. What mushrooms did she have in her omellette this morning I wonder to myself. I bet she's headed to where I'm going I think to myself.

Magical is not a word that a lot of people use anymore and it's a pity really because if you want to catch someone's attention just try slipping the "M" word into your conversation.

The next time someone asks you the requisite, "How are you?" you could take a big, theatrical inhalation and on the exhale, you could swing one arm across your body in a flamboyant The Price is Right kind of way, look to the heavens and in a breathy voice say, "I'm Magical, Just Magical!"

Then stand back, keep a straight face and see what they have to say about that.

So, when this woman said that, I got "that feeling" the one I get sometimes when I meet someone as if there's a little arrow above their head that's flashing on and off as if to say to me, pay attention to this one. Not from here. Maybe reincarnated. Has "The Secret". Celestine Prophecy in action. Taken over by The Mind of the Soul. Delivering a "message from the masters". You know. THAT kind of feeling.

We start talking and somehow she tells me she's writing/written a book. The book is called Stop Pretending You Don't Know What You Know. I love that title. I tell her that that book is going to be a best seller and she sits quietly, as if she already knows that to be true. Think about it. Stop Pretending That You Don't Know What you Know!

Stop pretending that you don't already know that you are gay! Stop pretending that your husband still loves you! Stop pretending that you're ever going to be any different! Stop pretending that you're going to write a book. Stop pretending that you're not fat! Stop pretending that you're nicer than you are. Stop pretending that you don't feel superior to every other person on the planet. Stop pretending that you really give a shit! And on and on and on it goes.

Try it. Add up your own list. Insert it here and repeat after me, all together now, on behalf of this woman. Stand up. Yell it out! All together: Stop Pretending that You Don't Know what you Know!

Anyway, back in the ferry waiting lounge where someone has now thrown up and about 10people have accidentally walked in it, we talk for a bit. She doesn't really tell me much about it as if I'm going to steal the premise and write it in a week or two before she gets it published.

Finally, I say to her, What's your name? She says my name is Gael!
"What" I said, not quite believing that she said her name was Gael.
Gael she says again more definitely.

That's MY name I say. MY name is Gayle. "AYL" I say. "AEL" she says back to me.

Now, is it just me or out of 900 people crammed into a little terminal waiting area, what is the chance that the woman who chooses to sit beside me has exactly the same name as mine.

Well, not exactly the SAME NAME as a very witty friend pointed out. Imagine if her LAST name was the same as yours? "You met a fairy on the ferry" she said. It's like a fairy tale. You start off in reality and suddenly, as your day progresses everyone you meet turns into some little person of the forest, spirit of the mountain or Matilda of the mist.


Okay, okay. But, you have to admit. Her and I - meeting - like that...

MAGICAL!!!!!!!!!!!