We Are People Here. We Are Not Numbers - Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)

In the infancy of our relationship

When we were almost exclusively hanging out

Together with friends

Cathy and I went to St. John’s Applefest

It was held every fall in the parking lot of the Catholic church

I had attended as a youth

Converting the quarter-mile of parish grounds into a second-rate carnival

Full of cheap thrills and poorly-maintained rides

We meandered through the crowds

Like tourists

Eventually ending up at the pirate ship at the far end of the fair

A mechanical boat that rose into the sky

Then swooped back down in the other direction like a swallow diving for insects

Cathy was nervous and began to fidget, refusing to get in line

Before our friends and I talked her into going

When the ride started

Any romantic idea I had of holding hands or an embrace

Was quickly abandoned when I saw the white-knuckled grip on the safety rail

Like she feared for her life