So in case you couldn't tell from my Ode to Angelo, I've had this flat deal in Athens I've been trying to pull off with a guy who randomly and unexpectantly disappeared for a few days just before the deal was sealed. Every time the phone rang at the house since last Monday, the whole house would echo in cries of "ANGELOO!" and we'd all decided that he must have died on his way to calling me (you should seriously check the poem out; it's legendary). I was considering writing the sequel to my epic in poem form, but I am just too blown away by how EPIC this chapter is that I want to tell it straight, because I seriously want you to know how EPIC this is. Before I go any further, I'm going to swear to you that every word of this is true, and my parents were there as witnesses so you can ask if you don't trust me. Ok, so anyway...
The phone rang today at 153. Reena laughed with the people in the kitchen, remarking on how funny it would be if it were the allusive Angelo. She goes to answer the phone and hears a male voice ask for me. She of course rushes into the kitchen and tells the probably shocked masses that it really WAS Angelo, I'm sure choruses of "ANGELOO!" rang out, and then she kindly gave him my cell number.
Meanwhile in London, my parents and I had gotten a late start for what we were planning would be Oxford. I was trying to get us to Paddington and wasn't paying enough attention to realize that the train we boarded, which I assumed was a Circle Line train, was being used for the District Line. Once I heard that we were headed for Ealing Broadway and NOT Edware Road, I realized that we were on the wrong line and that we had to get off at the next stop to change to the Circle, which just so happened to be Gloucester Road. So we get off at Gloucester Road and while I'm leading my parents to the Circle Line Platform to Paddington, I hear my phone go off. I see that it's a Withheld number and I think about not answering it, but I decided to give it a try.
I hear "Hi Katt, it's Angelo" and I have to stop myself from bursting out laughing or responding with "You're alive?!" Anyway, I'm pretty shocked to be hearing from him (and happy to hear he has an American accent and I can understand him easily) when he says he's been traveling for the past few days and was in fact still traveling now in London. The conversation then goes something like this:
ME: Funny story, but I'M in London right now. But we're heading to Oxford now; can I meet you tomorrow?
ANGELO: I'll actually be gone by then, you see I'm heading for the airport right now. Where in London are you?
ME: (as we're walking downstairs to the Circle Line Platform) Well to be exact I'm at the Gloucester Road Tube stop, but I doubt that helps you any.
ANGELO: Gloucester Road? I'm on the Piccadilly Line heading towards Heathrow right now. It'll be stopping at Gloucester Road in 10 minutes. Can you meet me at the platform?
I swear this happened. So I pull my parents away from the approaching train that we would've gotten on if I hadn't heard my phone, dragged them to the Piccadilly platform of Gloucester Road, where we wouldn't have been if I hadn't been a dope about catching the right train half an hour earlier, and waited to meet the infamous Angelo. Yep, I met Angelo. He lives; I shook his hand.
After we got everything squared away and he got back on his next train, I treated my parents to a reading of my Ode to Angelo, which I had copied on a whim into my journal last night, and had brought with me today for no particular reason.
Angelo, I'm relieved to see
That you have not forsaken me.
I swear this is a true story.
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This is most certainly true.
ReplyDeleteHappened again in Athens. Katherine was to arrive by ferry from Crete. Angelo was to meet her. He waited and waited, the ferry was late. He elected to leave, passing her on the stairs as she had just arrived. They recognized each other from the Tube visit earlier in London, and were able to get her to the apartment and visit.
Dad