Page Title

THE MESSAGE
by Kathe Gogolewski

I am seated across from her at a small table in an aging café in Oakland, California. A network of
lattice is the only partition separating us from the couple sitting at an identical table on the other
side, merely two feet away, yet worlds apart.

My friend’s eyes are speaking to me more than her words. I watch the liquid lights shift within as
she searches my face. She still wears a little of the rigidity she carried off the plane with her
yesterday, and I realize she has not accepted my assurances. Her thin lips appear tight and set.
Even as she speaks, her lips fall precisely and sparingly over the words, an economy of motion.
Her body too, is barely mobile and sits like an extension of the wooden chair supporting her. I
notice one wrist resting on the table, fingertips touching the surface lightly, concentrated, as if
they are on the edge of speaking.

The focal point of her concern, however, manifests in her brow. A minute ripple appears beneath
the surface of the skin, rising swiftly to reveal itself, like a wink, before sinking back into
smoothness. To another observer, I imagine her stature appears serene, and the more subtle
clues to her disposition are apparent to me alone.

She casts her voice softly across the table, yet there is no need to lean toward the words in order
to capture them, for her speech is imbued with inflections and intention, like a whispered song. It
is a particularly engaging moment, and a strand of her light hair slips away from the neat folds
arranged behind her head and lunges forward in protest.

The conversation swells, and suddenly, when it seems as though we might encounter a
breakthrough in our understanding, the young waitress appears and claims her territory at the
table’s edge.

“Dessert?” she queries with canned cheeriness, oblivious to her interruption. My friend smiles
thoughtfully at the girl as if she had perfect timing, and gently declines. The girl beams at the
quality of attention and retreats. My friend then resumes our discussion effortlessly, and my
sense of the recent disruption vanishes.

I left her at the airport later that afternoon for her departure. As I drove myself home, I reflected on
the thoroughness of our discussions, yet no accord had been reached.

It did not matter. She had flown three hundred miles for a day and a night to offer her opinion
about an event that involved only me. She stood not to gain or lose from my decision, yet had
treated the problem as if she would. It was easy to see her love and concern, and in the end, that
was all that mattered.

BIO - Kathe Gogolewski has written three books: A Promise to Keep, a romantic suspense, is
available from Double Dragon Publishing under her pen name, Ann Durand. TATO, is a fantasy
adventure for middle grade readers, is available from Wings Press. She wrote a third book,
Flight of the Gryphon, which will be available from Double Dragon Publishing under her pen
name, Ann Durand. She is also a contributing writer for RAnch and Coast, San Diego's Lifestyle
Magazine, and an Editor for the ezine for writers, The Muse Marquee. She heads up the column,
Heart Beat.

Kathe has won contests for her short stories with Storyteller Magazine and The Writer’s Journal,
The Complete Writer’s Magazine, and from her publisher. Her short stories and poems have
been published by Penwomanship, JacoByte Books, and Long Story Short.
.
She has contributed to two anthologies: One, The Muse on Writing, is due for release from
Double Dragon Publishing in 2006. She wrote the chapter Finding and Writing in Your Own
Voice. She also wrote a chapter for the anthology Spiritual Visitations due from Zumaya
Publications in 2008.