Tales of the Black Fox

Getting to Know You

Evening a few days later...

"Yah! Why did you take this bad shot?" Sonia complained, betraying her annoyance and wondering why Mac had taken this photo of her walking away.

She did not like viewing images of herself as seen from behind. Doing so made her wonder if her legs were too fat, or if her butt was too big or if her figure was too ordinary when compared to others.

She turned the camera screen toward him so he could see the offending image she had discovered.

"Two words - beyond awesome!" he exclaimed, and smiled at her.

"Her or that sign?" she asked indignantly, referring to the sign in the background.

"Do you have to ask?" he wondered.

"Of course!" she insisted.

"Well it's like this... I saw this very beautiful Korean woman walking along the street and..." he started to explain intentionally slowly until he was interrupted.

"How did you know she's Korean?" she asked slyly, quickly jumping into the middle his explanation.

"She said so... at least I think she did. Anyway, I just had to get a photo of her strolling past that particular sign." he continued.

"Why?" she interjected.

"She was too pretty just to let her pass by. The only problem was that when she noticed the camera I was holding, she turned around and walked away from me." he concluded.

"Yah! Do you always take random photos of just any woman walking on the street?" she asked playfully.

"No. Just of the Girl from Ipanema." he quipped.

"Who's that?" she asked, immediately more serious in tone and having been surprised by his unexpected answer.

"The beautiful girl in that well known song... you know..." he said, but he could tell from the expression on her face that she did not know.

He then then sort of half-sung two lines from the song, "But each day, when she walks to the sea, She looks straight ahead, not at me."

"I like that... is there more?" she asked laughing, responding to the manner in which he had answered her question.

Mac stood up in front of Sonia, held up the camera, pointed at the image of her and then half sung another two lines, "Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking, And when she passes, I smile - but she doesn't see."

"Am I really like that?" she asked, curious to know if he thought she was like that.

"Well..." he said while pretending to stare at an imaginary fixed point while pondering.

He had deliberately paused to needle her and watch for a reaction.

"Yah! Don't answer all in a rush!" she exclaimed impatiently in response to his hesitation.

"I wasn't," he remarked and continued," let's see... you're tall, and tan and young and lovely... but as I remember, you never looked straight ahead... you actually looked at me."

"I did?" she questioned.

"Of course! You almost always had some unusual remark to say to me." he reminded with some exaggeration.

"Was I really like that?" she questioned in a surprised manner.

"That's what made me notice you; you were different." he stated.

"You're not going to let me forget that, are you?" she commented.

"When I saw you those times I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen." he admitted.