211116 Sentinel, Why did Joyce Pick Me, Part 1

The night I met Joyce.

I remember every detail of that night like it was last night. It’s funny that while I have had countless experiences in my life that were exciting, a few that were life threatening and so many things I studied through the years and remember little about them, the night I met Joyce stands out in full detail. Perhaps that’s because my life changed forever in that one single evening. Nothing else can compare to that hour.

The funny thing was that despite the fact I showed more bravado that night in my quest to charm the most beautiful girl I ever saw, Joyce was hardly impressed. I was just some guy she met and spent an hour with. She didn’t even remember what I looked like. When I showed up for our first date after that evening she was not sure if I was the same guy or not. I can only think that while she changed my life at first sight, I was nothing special to her at all.

I was at the time working in a service station/ brake repair shop, so there was nothing outstanding about me and my potential. Dates were scheduled for Saturday nights, but on Saturday’s I worked a 12 hour shift so there wasn’t a lot of time to get home and shower and get to pick up a girl for a date. Joyce had a rule, if a date didn’t show up within 10 minutes of the scheduled time she was gone in her father’s car and unavailable. I tried to make that deadline, but the station owner who did the hiring and firing was usually drunk on a Saturday and wanted to pour out his troubles on me, making me late and missing Joyce’s deadline. When I would get there, her mother would tell me she had already left for places unknown.

To make things worse, my car broke down shortly after we first met, so after working at the station all day I either walked home or caught a ride from a friendly customer. My days and evenings were consumed with work. When I didn’t call Joyce for a while, she gave up on me. I finally got the car running and headed over to see Joyce early the next morning. I didn’t even wait to put the hood back on the car, I wanted to see her. Joyce was still asleep. I knocked on the door and her mother (grandma Mickey) opened the door and let me in. We walked into the kitchen and I sat at the table. Her mother called Joyce to wake her up and said Bill was here to see her. Joyce got up, thinking her mother was using a ruse to get her up. She walked into the kitchen in her summer pajamas and when she saw me there she fled for her room, never dreaming I was actually there.