Z Returns

Remember my friend Z? The old friend at the small Christian college in Pennsylvania? A month and a half ago I posted the true story of his love's labours lost. Now the carrier pigeons have just come in with more news: Z is no longer single! Yes, for all of you who thought that Z would be single just as long as his name was last called on every roll... you were wrong. Information is still filtering in from the field, but here's what the CIA (Chops Information Agency) has so far:

You know how underfunded Christian outdoor concerts are... a few percussion-happy boy bands with evangelism on their minds, a lot of youth-group Christians, and a preacher who doesn't mind being associated with the boy band following their performance with a gospel message. Sometimes they find nice, small places to hold the concert in, so it looks full even if half of the 16 people who promised to come don't show. OK, that's an extremely cynical view of what are often fantastic events, and I would be much more positive about them, but I wanted to paint an accurate picture of the concert that Z found himself attending. It was in a rural town half an hour from his college, and there were probably 30 people there, including four of Z's friends who had driven together from school.

Between two undifferentiable punk-rock songs, Z started a conversation with the young woman next to him. Also a student from the same university, she had driven up alone because her cousins lived in the town and the band was friends of one of the cousins. Z suddenly remembered a class that they'd taken together freshman year. Grace didn't remember the class, and didn't think she'd ever taken it, actually, but she trusted his memory and they carried on the casual conversation a little to the side, and out of the main line of fire of the 5-foot speakers. It certainly wasn't a pickup, that would be below Z, and I wouldn't believe him if he said he blatantly picked up a girl at an outdoor concert - he really is a gentleman, albeit a lonely one.

Maybe it's no secret where this is going, but how it got there is certainly entertaining, and is probably the main reason this story has come through intact - even if it's Z's first instinct to keep his love life a secret, this story is priceless, and his friends made sure it got around (and Z's cool widdat; I got his permission before publicizing this). Anyway, Grace was planning to go back to her cousins' to say goodbye before returning to campus, so they agreed to keep an eye out for each other on campus, shook hands, and nodded bye.

Their respective cars were parked next to each other, which isn't saying a lot at a barely attended small-town concert; there were only two other cars anyway, and both of those were already leaving. Z's pal, the jalopy's owner, hopped into the drivers seat, revved the engine and pulled out. Oh wait, the car didn't pull out. Neither did it rev... "Z! Did you leave the backseat light on?!?!" "Did I? I thought I got that before I got out... yeah I did, see it's not on." "I know it's not on. Lights tend to go out when the battery dies!" "Oh, sorry... um, do you have jump cables?" "No, do you?" "Geez, lighten up, it's just a battery..."

Z's sentance kinda tailed off when he realized Grace had walked up holding a well-endowed pair of cables. The rest is history: six highly intelligent students, all sober and in good standing at a respected educational establishment, trying to fix one of the simpler problems common to automobiles. A good 90 minutes later, they were on the road. It was 9:30 pm by this time, and Grace called her cousins to say she had to get back to school and would see them sometime soon. She invited Z to keep her company on the drive and the rest is really history.