Karl's life

“I want a life that is multi-dimensional,” said Carrie.

She told me this while we were sitting on a bench looking at the New York skyline. She was wearing blue denim jeans, white Converse sneakers and a black blouse. She lounged back on the bench, looking straight ahead while she talked. Occasionally she would glance left at me. Everytime she did I would be looking back to hold her eye in the stillness of the night before she continued with whatever story she was telling.

She was grasping for a meaning, trying to express something beyond herself. The darkness enveloped us, as the dusk turned to night. We stared out onto the mass of shimmering and vibrating buildings. 

“What do you mean by multi-dimensional?”

“I don’t know, it goes like this,” she waves her arms up and down. “And it goes like this,” she waves her arms side to side.

I felt exactly what she meant.

“So many lives just go one way, straight ahead from where they came from. I want mine to be able to veer off in some other direction,” she gently curved her hands to the right. “But I like where I came from, so still moving forward, just maybe on a slightly different plane”.

It was my first date with Carrie and we had already been talking for a few hours. We had discussed our favorite buildings. Her’s was the Chrysler. And our favorite times to stare at them. Her’s was dusk.

I already liked her. But that last comment made her different.

“That’s the most attractive thing you have said so far,” I said. She turned to me and we held each other’s gaze. Longer this time. She smiled, her top lip curved up and her dimples emerged. Still we look at each other. “Thank you,” and she looks away.

Culture, religion and family are one dimension. They take you from the past into the future. Friends, careers and lovers are another dimension. They try to nudge you onto another plane. People come to New York to be nudged, or pushed, or pulled. We don’t know when it is going to happen, but I think Carrie might do this to me, and I hope I do it to her.