The resort as it looks today: the plum trees and the bungalows are all gone. The ping-pong table was set up somwhere close to the wooden structure in the back.
There are moments in our life with unique importance. These are shimmers, when time seems to slow down to a virtual standstill, almost like an incidental snap shot. Times, when the world around us turns into drowsily pulsating, dreamy shadows as the moment unhurriedly yet unstoppably carves itself deep into our memory.
Most such moments tend to be linked to fateful events. Few Americans who were alive at the time, would not remember where they were and what they were doing when JFK’s assassination was announced. Similar key events shape the memory of all generations, be it a war declaration, a natural disaster or a terrorist action.
But, I don’t think that these are the most crucial moments of our lives.
How about then, the key personal events: a “big” birthday, the first kiss, pronouncing the ever committing “Yes”, seeing our kicking and screaming newborn child for the first time or yes, getting the sad news of the passing of a beloved one. These moments are much closer to us than those colossal world news and they are destined to shape our future in very powerful ways.
But still no…, I don’t think that these are the most defining moments of our lives either.
The events that have the biggest impact on us are those everyday small jiffies that we frequently don’t even remember of. These moments lurk in the fringes of our awareness and unknowingly jolt us into action day after day. By the twist of fate, one such incidence of my life never crossed the fringes inot the mist of oblivion.
When I was a child, my family used to spend our summer vacation at a popular lake of Hungary, called the Balaton. The lake is quite spectacular at the feet of ancient, extinct volcanic hills. It has always been revered and loved by the people around it, as reflected in the multitude of folk tales about giants, kings and tragic lovers who used to live there.
One summer at the lake remained particularly memorable for me. I was in my mid-teens then and met Judith in our resort where she spent her vacation with her family. She was a dirty blond with a hypnotizing smile, a ticklish laugh and blue eyes that got me lost in them every time I glanced at her. Our gang of like-age youngsters, somewhere between childhood and adolescence, always played together on the grounds of the resort. To my dismal, one other boy in the group also took a liking in Judith and she clearly enjoyed the double attention.
One afternoon we were playing a special game around the ping-pong table. The purpose of the game was to return the ball while running in circles around the table. When you missed the ball, you were out and the game continued until only two of the players were left. The two then played a final short game for “best of seven” to decide who was the ultimate winner. As it happened, on that day my rival for Judith’s favors and I were the two finalists. Naturally, in the group that was watching our duel, there was Judith with her mesmerizing blue eyes following the ball with noticeable excitement. Being about equal players, our exchanges were fairly long and I frequently saw a shimmer of Judith’s probing glances on me, when the return was on my side.
The winning came down to the seventh and final point. I was full with nervous tension. God only knows how much I wanted to win that last point! I pictured myself as Judith flashes her heart-warming smile of admiration at me after my heroic victory. My heart was pumping and I was concentrating on the ball with all my might.
I had a certain slam that I used to be very proud of. To be honest, I lost a lot of points because of that slam but when it worked, it was impressive: as the ball approached the ground and appeared hopelessly lost, I returned it with a powerful top-spin from well below the level of the table. Due to the spin, the bounce on the other side was so fast that nearly everyone missed the return. It was a pretty spectacular move! Thinking that “nothing ventured, nothing gained”, this was the slam I chose to finish the decisive round with. Although the odds were not better than 50/50…, it worked! My opponent, underestimating the speed of the ball missed it and instead he slammed the thin air with his pedal. I heard a few chuckles from the group that intently followed our rivalry.
The sense of victory was complete and sweet. My opponent stepped to me to congratulate and I saw sweat rolling down his face from his hairline. I noticed the surprised and appreciative look on Judith’s face, as our eyes met for longer than ever before.
There were plum trees around us with the chalky blue, ripe plums in reach from the ground. Judith was about to taste one those plums, when, on a whim, she changed her mind… and this is where the moment in slow motion started. With a heart warming, big smile on her face, she slowly gestured to throw me the plum.
I wanted to stop time! I wanted to end life right there, in that moment as the plum made its way toward me, slicing through the air. The space between Judith and me that seemed so vast just a minute ago suddenly contracted and became so intimate that I could see the bright spark in her eyes that appeared bluer than a September sky and deeper than any ocean. I could feel the silkiness of her smooth, blond hair that flittered to the side from tossing me that plum. My clutched fingers gently hugged the plum when it landed in my hand. I was holding it as if it were a hatchling that just fell out of the nest.
I never ate that plum. Somehow I managed to bring it home without squashing and saved it in a box for many years to come. Although it became wrinkled like a raisin, its blue color never faded. Whenever I looked at it, I saw Judith’s ocean-blue eyes, and remembered that afternoon with the plum trees, the ping-pong table and us, kids running around the table trying to impress Judith, whose appreciative glimpse at that moment was not matched by anything in the whole wide world.
Fifteen years later, I got married. Getting ready to move out from our old apartment, I was cleaning my drawers and cabinets when came across the box with the plum. “What shall I do with this once so dear relic of my past?”, I pondered. After thinking long and hard, finally I decided to throw it out the window. “Who knows”, I mused, “one day a plum tree may sprout from it, …a tree that will stand witness for one of those mystifying moments in my life.”
Photo credit: 9hotelparis.wordpress.com
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