Patience Infinite Destiny

Car Window View / 2017 / Photo by RCS

She’d heard it all before. A million and a half times. And not the last time she’d tell herself, living with a dumb name from my careless family. She could outrun them, but couldn’t ditch this name, ever. Although, on a Thursday night at The Comet, half empty with half-drunk patrons, nobody showed any signs of patience. After shooing off several of the more annoying barflies, she met up with Sally Noir – visiting Seattle from the wilds of Vancouver Island. They’d shared two pitchers of Happy Hour Red Hook Ale and laughed a lot as they usually did. A week prior, Patience had left the outskirts of Norcross, Georgia, long before dawn and her mother Edwina, and her Aunt Flo’s awakening. Driven her used Ford Mustang coast to coast, from the Deep South to pre-Grunge Seattle. The car grinded its gears once too often and decided to cease being fully functioning as she turned off I-5 and gunned it up the Olive Way freeway exit on fumes and barely any brakes, weaving her way uphill to Capitol Hill. Laughing hysterically, she banged on the steering wheel at the timing and marveled at how the universe often had a distinctly wicked sense of humor. Her long drive ended as she pulled into an alley just past a café called the B&O Espresso. Parked and locked up, she wished her vehicle a good rest and a miracle from the parking Goddess, then grabbed a coffee and a scone at the B&O, letting the trip roll through her mind. Her given name, Patience Collins, never set well. Knew as a little kid her last name was dumb, plain, generic. If they were going to name me Patience, she sure as hell was choosing her last name. And Collins wasn’t going to cut it. In something akin to infinite wisdom, Ed and Flo had forgotten to give Patience a middle name. So, Patience decided to pick middle names according to discovery and delight. In fact, those were two of the middle names she’d chosen over the years. None were legal, all were fluid and rotating. Currently, her middle name was Infinite. Soon after discovering there was a book in the house called a Dictionary, and it was where they kept all the words – she set herself to finding the exact word to become her last name. And she chose “Destiny.” Knowing she’d find hers, and it would always be mostly inside herself and sometimes out in the world. Knew in her heart she’d find it. Sally Noir asked, “What’s the phrase about deciding your last name, you dropped on my head a decade ago?” “You’re reading my mind, Sally. I, or the cosmic narrator, was just thinking the same thought. Hah!” Sally leaned back on the barstool and motioned with spinning fingers the universal gesture signifying ‘go on’. The rail-thin, smudged mascara, tattooed arms, wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt bartender pointed a finger at their empty pitcher. They both nodded yes at the same moment. Patience Infinity Destiny said, “Discovering there was a book in the house called a ‘Dictionary’ where they kept all the words” is the phrase you’re seeking.” Clinking pint glasses and downing the last of their beers, they smiled madly at each other. “Oh, I so love how your young mind worked,” Sally said.