1983

Elizabeth
A Strange Encounter

In March I had the strangest encounter, I crossed paths with Elizabeth who I had not seen or heard from for the past two years.  Two nights a week I was commuting to UCF in Orlando, an hour drive each way.  It was long but easy drive, four lanes and no stoplights, taking Interstate 95 north then a straight shot west on Highway 50 crossing the St. John’s river followed by miles of Florida swamp lands, arriving on the west side of Orlando where I got off on Alataya Trail Road taking it about a mile to UCF, all with no stoplights.     

Classes started at 7:00 PM so I would leave after work around 5:30 getting to the campus often a half hour before class which gave me a few minutes to relax after a day of work and the hour drive.  I sometimes would sit there in my Chev Van, close my eyes and rest before going to class. One day while resting, I heard a tap on the window, I looked and there was some guy standing there.  I roll down my window and he asked if I was OK and I assured him I was, that I was just resting, before class.

One day after turning off onto Alataya Trail Road I had only gone only a short distance when I saw a girl riding her bike on the bike path that ran alongside the road.  I was going 35 miles per hour so I would pass her in a few seconds, but even so, and seeing her from the back, she looked familiar.  As I passed her I looked in my rear view mirror and it looked like Elizabeth.  No way, I thought, it couldn’t be her, but I had to know.  A hundred yards up the road was a side street so I turned onto it, did a quick U-turn and was there waiting where the bike path crossed.  As the girl got closer to the crossing, I knew it was her, as she approached the intersection she slows down and gets off her bike since my Chevy Van is blocking the path.   I call out to her though my rolled down window, ELIZABETH!  She looks puzzled, I call her name again, and she says “Larry?” in a questioning voice, I answered “yes”, and she approached my window, and we talk.

I explain I am on my way to class at UCF and she said she was also going to the UCF and lived just off Alataya Trail Road across from UCF.  After talking a few minutes she asked if I wanted to stop by her place.  I said yes, but only had a short time so we put her bike in my van and drove to her place.  Upon arriving, we unload her bike and go into her apartment. She apologized that it was so dark, but she explained that she couldn't afford to have the electricity turned off, so we sat there in the dark and talked.  About what I don’t remember, we only talked about ten minutes before I left to go to class. 

It was all surreal, the odds of both of us going to UCF at the same time, the even greater  odds of both of us travelling on the same road at the same time to cross paths, seeing her for the first time in two years, talking to her there as we sat in the dark.  We exchanged numbers and addresses and said we would write.

Harris