I was thinking about what attracts one person to another. When does that moment occur when you know you’ve found your soulmate? No one knows until it happens. So I thought it would be fun to write about that moment with this short piece of fiction.
Love at First Sight
Joe was a homicide cop working on a case. He had no idea something would happen that day. It would change his life. Unfortunately, it would happen when he had a mouthful of doughnut.
Kathy awoke as she did every morning, threw on her joggers, t-shirt, and sneakers, grabbed a bottle of water, and headed for Central Park. She too, was oblivious that today everything would change.
The call came shortly before 6 am. Joe grabbed his coat.
The man had shot out from behind bushes and grabbed an early morning jogger. She had no time to scream as he launched his brutal attack. It would be wrong to call him a man because no true man would do what he did.
Joe got there in time to preserve the crime scene.
“Get these people outta here!” he barked at the uniformed officers.
It didn’t help when it began to rain.
“Sarge,” a young cop approached. “We have a witness.”
“Where?”
He pointed to a brunette who had her hands on her cheeks.
Joe stared, and then asked, “She all right?”
“She’s in shock. It ain’t a pretty sight.”
“She see the body?”
He nodded.
“Okay, get the medics to check her over, then get her down to the station.”
“Right.” He nodded and left.
Kathy sat in a room full of cops working on other cases. She’d been given coffee but hadn’t touched it. Today was a day she wanted to begin again.
She didn’t know the something that was going to change her life hadn’t happened yet.
Joe picked up doughnuts on the way back to the station. He poured coffee from the percolator in the corner and shoved a doughnut in his mouth. He picked up a manila folder and headed for his desk.
The moment, that one moment that would define their future was about to happen.
He arrived at his desk, the doughnut still in his mouth, and stopped with surprise.
Kathy’s hair, still wet from the shower matched her tear-stained face. She looked up and her haunted eyes pierced him.
For a moment – the moment, their eyes locked.
Unconsciously, Kathy touched her hair and Joe dropped the doughnut to his hand.
Their fate sealed.
Joe had met Kathy.
“The witness?” he asked.
“The cop?” she said back.
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry to have kept you waiting.” He offered his hand, then thought better of it, wiped it on his trousers, and offered it again.
And that was it. The defining moment that would change their lives forever.
Of course, love at first sight, is reserved for works of fiction. In real life, the process can take a little longer. In this case, it had been triggered.
They say out of something bad, often comes good. Kathy’s testimony put away the killer and the image that haunted her that day would be eased by Joe’s gentle touch and his penchant for doughnuts.
