Karima.

"Have you ever thought about your life as an epic?" - M.C.

On Gabby’s way to do some last minute shopping for India (outlet converter, bras, school supplies), she realized her thirst. So before jumping onto the freeway to the mall, she stopped at the gas station to buy a soda.

In back of the register was a person Gabby had seen, and noticed and wondered, about. She had spoken to this beautiful young gas station attendant many times before because every time she came back to New Hampshire and stopped at the station to buy a pack of cigarettes or a drink, she was always there and always the same. She was young, but older than Gabby, possibly by ten years. Her thick brown was usually pulled back loosely in a bun with tight ringlets framing her face. Her large brown eyes seemed to smile as wide as her lips. She was always dressed nicely and wore simple gold jewelry. Gabby always wondered what was her story.

“Hello!” exclaimed the woman in a thick accent she could never place (she thought maybe South America). “How was your weekend!” Then her lips reverted to the familiar smile shape that seemed to be her mouth’s natural curve. The woman talked to her as though they were old friends.

“Good!” Said Gabby, warmly. “I spent a lot of time with some friends I haven’t seen in a while. How was yours?”

“Good! I worked. I went home and made dinner. Oh! I went to the mall and got a really nice blouse! Very expensive though,” the woman said with a look that suggested she’d gone out of her budget and was feeling a little guilty.

“I bet its really comfortable, though,” Gabby said, hoping to make her feel better about her purchase. She was pleasantly surprised that the stranger was talking so casually and friendly to her. The woman certainly didn’t fit in to Gabby’s schema of gas station attendants – usually middle aged men who went about their work with discontent, never smiling and definitely not making small talk with customers.

“Yes! I would never wear it to work. Maybe to go out with friends. But how was your weekend?!” Gabby repeated that her weekend was really good and told the woman that she’s been preparing to go to India in two days.

“India! India? Asia India?” After asking her questions about the purpose of the trip she said, “Oh! You have to stop in and say goodbye to me before you leave!”

Gabby told the woman she would stop in and say goodbye to her. And for a second, she believed it. But as she walked out the door, she realized she probably wouldn’t come back to the gas station again. In fact, she would have to avoid the store, even if she needed something; she felt she would need to go to a different store to make her purchases. It would be too awkward and forced. She is simply a stranger who sells her soda and now that she asked her to stop in and say goodbye she automatically couldn’t. It was like high school when everybody wrote in everybody else’s year books, “keep in touch!” But everyone knew there would be no keeping of the touch.

No, she couldn’t come back. She would have to let it go at that.


The evening before Gabby’s flight, she picked up a bottle of Shiraz to have with dinner with her parents. It was a nice night, cooled down significantly from the hot humid day by a heavy and sudden rain. The sky was clear now and the sun filtered though the dining room bay windows. Her last supper before her journey to Asia would be Chinese food. When her mother came home they ordered. Gabby and her mother had some of the wine. They ate together and talked about her fast-approaching trip. Gabby was curious, so she asked her parents, “So, what are your goals for the next four months?” It was, overall, a very pleasant meal.

Then Gabby had to say goodbye to a couple friends. On her way, she began thinking about how much she had been thinking about the woman at the gas station. And then, suddenly, she remembered what a very close old friend had said to her once:

“Have you ever thought about your life as an epic…like you’re writing the best story you can?” The old friend said.

“A book? No. Not once, actually.”

“Really? I do all the time. Like, if my life were a book, and everything I do goes into it, would people be interested? Would people be amazed?”

Suddenly Gabby knew. She would go back to the gas station. And if the woman, who had so strangely and frequently fluttered through her mind, was working, she would say goodbye. Then she had another thought:

“I’m going to get her address and send her postcards from India.” There was no doubt now to her that she would do this, no second guessing the situation. Gabby was happy and excited by her quick decision and relieved to find the woman working that night.

The greeted each other. “I was thinking about you.” There thoughts of each other were no longer solitary, they were an unlikely exchange. When do you leave?” They spoke a minute at the register. Gabby asked her where she was from.

“Can you guess?”

“I don’t know…I was thinking maybe somewhere in South America”

“Oh no! I’m from Morocco!”

“What’s your name?”

“Karima. What’s yours?

Gabrielle told her and Karima complimented it. Karima noticed Gabby’s Star of David necklace and said, “Aw, so we are friends.” Karima isn’t Jewish but said that Moroccans are friends of the Jews. As they spoke, a short line of customers was forming behind Gabby. She moved out of the way until Karima took care of the, then asked her, “Would you like to get a postcard from India?”

Karima lit up and they exchanged contacts. “If you were here you could come over…when you get back…we can write!” Then they exchanged goodbyes.

Walking back through the parking lot, Gabby felt a happiness she had only recently begun to again feel again. She felt warm inside - possibly glowing on the outside. She had so effortlessly found a new thing to explore, a new world to understand. Gabby knew now, that no matter how many cigarettes she smokes, regardless many bad habits or addictions she finds herself battling (she understood those came from the same passion the good things come from), she will more than OK. She felt suddenly so, so appreciative -

and as ready as conceivable to meet India.

As she pulled her car out of the parking space, Karima ran out to her car, huge smile and all. She handed Gabby a piece of candy from the store and said farewell one last time. She seemed so perfectly happy.

The sky darkened gently into night, that night. And Gabby clung to that good place for as long as she could.

While continuing on to see her friends one last time during this brief return him, she began thinking about all the people who have made her happy - beginning with her immediate family - her parents, her sister, her friends from Syracuse, those from home and from other places.

But then there were more – there were teachers and coworkers, forgotten best friends from childhood, lost soul mates, ex-boyfriends, distant relatives, dance instructors, neighbors, neighborhood children, perfect strangers. She remembered and remembered and remembered them all -

until there were so many people the list went on forever.