November 12, 2009

• Beatrice & Benedick

  “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”
  -Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing
  -William Shakespeare
  

  It was our third or fourth date, about eleven years ago, when I knew I really liked the man that would become my husband.  I already knew I loved Ken, whether I wanted to admit that or not; I knew that on our first date. This was different.

  It was Memorial Day weekend. Ken was stationed at Fort Bragg. He had a weekend pass and a buddy who was driving up to Fairfield to visit his family (turns out his friend’s family lives about five minutes away from my mom’s house, where I was staying). After he and his other buddy, Birddog (I think his real name is Eugene) met my mother (an event that turned out to be way cooler than I thought it would), the three of us went over to my best friend Jeanne’s house for a little while. Ken struck up a conversation with her brother, Scot, who had been in the army. Scot is a good guy, but he comes off as kind of mean or anti-social at first. He doesn’t laugh easily. Ken had him laughing almost instantly. I looked across the room, where Jeanne stood, staring back at me. Wow.

  Birddog, Ken and I went to a diner (it might have been a Friendly’s). While we ate, I did that thing that I do when I am comfortable with someone: I played with words.

  Most of my friends know what that means; I realise many of you don’t. I will try to explain here. It is something I have done all of my life, a game I used to play almost exclusively with my father when I was a little Vanessa; one of us would say something random, and the other would quickly reply with something just as weird. It would continue, a fast-moving nonsense conversation punctuated with a bunch of laughter, until one of us could not “top” the other’s statement. I only “won” a few times as a child – my father was very quick – but as an adult, I had only had two friends who understood what was going on, and only one that could “keep up”… sometimes.

  Ken had played along well, and kept up with me from day one. He never looked at me like I had grown a second head or told me to grow up, as some guys had before him. He seemed to have as much fun as I did.

  That night, at the diner, he “beat” me. No one had actually “beaten” me in years. I’m not bragging, but I am usually very fast with words.

  We moved on to ragging on each other, topping one another, laughing and making Birddog laugh.

  I forgot what the last thing I said was. I know it was funny, but for me, it was eclipsed by what Ken said afterward:

  He chuckled, took my hand across the table and said, “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”

  When I didn’t say anything, he began to explain Much Ado About Nothing to me. I let him go on while I sat there and smiled. Boy knows his Shakespeare.

  When Ken was done with his synopsis, I quoted, “… They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.”

  Birddog said, “You guys are made for each other.”

  Darned if he wasn’t right; the merry war betwixt Benedick and Beatrice continues, and it is great fun.
  

  • 7:21 pm
  • 14 Comments