Clyde wanders into the office, finds me on the phone with a client, and hands me a handwritten message. On the slip of paper is a phone number and a single word: “Marcus.”
The name takes me back. Marcus and I were best friends twenty years ago, when I was a closeted eighteen-year-old youth minister. We were a pair — Mark and Marcus — a matched set. We made a good team: I was quick, and he was handsome. I came up with plans; he got us attention.
Just the name stirs a flood of memories. We once fooled several dozen kids from a neighboring town into thinking I was Marcus’ cousin from France. When New Coke came out, we drove around ripping “New Coke is Here!” signs off area vending machines. When I got ready to leave home for college, Marcus went with me to check out the campus and the church.
We even shared a girlfriend along the way: a vibrant young woman named Wendy. Wendy had a crush on me, but her passion was always for Marcus. As an older, straight-laced, Bible-thumping (and gay!) youth minister, I provided her with a non-threatening model boyfriend. Marcus, though, was more rough-and-tumble, more comfortable in his own skin. Even back then, the chemistry between them was undeniable.
Time passed. We all went seperate ways. Marcus married another girl and fathered two children. Wendy married someone else. Without meaning to, we all drifted into completely seperate lives. The present seduces us; before we know it, we lose track of people who used to occupy huge spaces in our hearts.
I call him back. I mention I heard through Mother that he’d been divorced … and that he’d seen Wendy again. The news turns out to be that they’re married. On the phone, they sound like two excited kids.
How strange … and how perfect. It’s good to know the universe sometimes reunites the people who are meant to be together, despite the odds.
My own life is a testimony to that fact. Who’d have thought a fundamentalist minister and a fraternity president would wind up together … yet here we are.
Time to sign off. I want to spend the rest of the night watching t.v. with the person God meant for me to be with.
It’s good to know the same thing has happened for Marcus and Wendy, too, after all these years.
wendy’s bawling like a baby,i guess it’s just the hormones….she’ll sleep better tonightit was great hearing from you again…even after all this time it still seemed as though we never lost contactGOOD LUCK with your new book!!!