Sleepless in Chicago To Sleepless in Los Angeles


Still typing late one night as usual actually, I had a bad habit of writing late at night when all around me was quiet, I got this message from one of my favorite friends: "Still working this late? I think I stay up late, but as you are two hours ahead, you are truly a late worker!"

I answered right away, again as usual, "Right on, I am a late bloomer! How are you? How come do you stay up late tonight?"

My friend, a lady in the City of the Angels, was a real angel. She was really sweet and nice, she had a face of a child. She typed back, "I can't sleep! It is cold here tonight!"

"Talking about a change in weather," I wrote back, "Think about Buffalo in New York, it has two feet of snow this early October this year! Anyway, it's windy in Chicago. It makes the weather twice chilly!"

"Is it why Chicago called the Windy City?"

"Yes, it's windy because we have the Great Lakes without any trees to prevent the wind come from the big lakes. It's cooler during summertime though!"

"Of course, I had to go to the beaches during summer all the time. It's so hot in L. A. I don't know how I would adjust to the weather in Saigon if I ever go back."

"Don't worry, you'll have what we call airconditioners!"

"You're funny!"

"Of course, or I 've tried to be! Didn't you know I was the clown in my classes in High School?"

"No, I didn't know that. You look serious enough for me!"

Teasing her, I typed back, "Serious enough to ask you to marry me?"

"No way, Jose!" She answered almost immediately.

She then typed back as if from a second thought: "You meant it?"

"Ha ha ha!" I answered, "You know very well that I am practically engaged. If I were not and you are not, it would be a maybe!"

"Life always has possibilities," She wrote back philosophically, "But love is a choice!"

"Of course, love is a choice. Life is a choice. Sometimes it's hard to make decisions, but one bears consequences or gain success, happiness thru the right decisons, right?"

"Yes, I wish I make the right choice all the time!"

"Don't we all wish that, making the right decision, meeting the right person, marrying the right spouse, making a lot of money, finding happiness..."

"Yeah!..." She wrote back. I imagined she had her dreamy eyes looking out thru the window, thinking about the waves in the Pacific Ocean, thinking about all the great things in life. I still had her blue daisy a long way back, in the vase on my desk. She was quiet for a long time.

"Still there?" I sent her a line.

"Yes, dreaming... "

I wanted to chat to her more, but my eyes got kind of droopy, I got really sleepy now, so I wrote, "Good night, don't stay up too late. Beauty has to have beauty sleep!"

I could hear her laugh when I received her answer, "Go on with you! Have a sweet dream!"

I knew I would have great dreams, thinking about my princess with beautiful long hair in the beautiful black dress with designed embroideries. Of course, all our loved ones were beautiful in one way or another, as they said, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder!"

Nguyen Do