Didn’t See It Coming . . .

/ roughwighting

Chat GPT, bar conversation, blog story“I didn’t see it coming,” I said to Thomas.

I didn’t know Thomas. Well, not well. I’d just met him 35 minutes ago when I entered the bar. Alone. For the first time in my 54 years of life.

“You didn’t see what coming?” Thomas asked.

I slanted my eyes at him, trying to figure out if he was being sarcastic or kind. He’d already bought my first drink, a chocolate martini, and if I gave him a good answer, maybe he’d buy me a second one. chocolate martini, Image by Lei-Ling from Pixabay, bar conversation

I sat up straight on the barstool and looked around. “What didn’t I see coming? Me, sitting here in a bar, drinking a martini – first one ever by the way – talking freely with a young man I’ve never met.”

“Oh, you’ve met me,” Thomas replied.

My mouth opened. Oh. No. Was he a friend of my son? Jason is 20 – no no, this guy, Thomas, must be at least 40. Right?

I gulped some of the martini. “I’ve met you?”

Thomas grinned, but apologetically. “You were my Sunday school teacher, Ms. Hazel.”

I almost fell off the bar stool. Of all the bars in all the nearby towns in all of the days of the week, how did I ….

“Don’t feel bad. I was 8. You were probably just 18 or so.”

ChatGPT, Sunday School teacherThat was true. I remembered, suddenly, teaching Sunday School the summer before I left for college. I had considered a teaching career, but …I blurted out to Thomas, “I bet you’re the kid who convinced me to not be a teacher.”

Thomas laughed so naturally, so sincerely, that my face glowed. “What did you ‘become’?” he asked, bracketing the word ‘become’ with a chuckle while raising a finger toward the bartender.

Another drink was on its way. I must have earned the second one.

“Oh well,” I responded wistfully, “that is the existential questions, isn’t it? I’ve become a woman – quite successful, I’ll mention – who has lost it all and is now lost in a bar with a man a decade younger than she, buying her drinks.

Thomas smiled so tenderly he looked like a priest, probably a Jesuit.

Oh. Oh no no no. I just noticed the narrow white collar sneaking out from the neck of his navy-blue sweater. He is a priest.

Perhaps I’ve come to the right bar, after all.

89 thoughts on “Didn’t See It Coming . . .”

  11. Haha! Who doesn’t like a good twist?

    My mother-in-law had a longtime boyfriend after she divorced my father-in-law. Al was a hard-working guy with a big personality, but he had no filter. My mother-in-law told a great story about him, how he was going off about something in his usual no-holds-barred style at a dinner party, carrying on and cussing up a storm. After he finished ranting, he turned to the woman next to her and asked what she did for a living.

    “I’m a nun,” she replied meekly, as Al turned four shades of red.

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  12. This story reads like a moment pulled out of life’s pocket—unexpected, unplanned, and shimmering with irony and warmth. The way the scene unfolds is cinematic: a bar stool, a first martini, a stranger who isn’t really a stranger, and a past you didn’t even realize you carried until it sat down beside you and bought you a drink.

    The twist—realizing Thomas was not just familiar, but a memory from your teaching-days past—was brilliant. It felt like life circling back, softly tapping you on the shoulder to say, “See? Nothing you lived was wasted.”

    And then the final reveal—
    not just a former student, but a priest.

    There’s something poetic in that: You walked into a bar alone,
    and walked into a moment of grace instead.

    A story of timing, identity, reinvention, and the strange kindness of coincidence. You’ve turned a simple encounter into something tender, humorous, and quietly profound.

    Absolutely masterful writing. I felt like I was sitting two stools away, watching it unfold with a smile.

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    • If my short stores every made it into an anthology, and then were studied in a graduate English class, I’d like YOU to be the professor to describe how I wrote my characters and plots and settings. You so “get” me and my stories and what I try to do in a fun and easy-to-read way. Some people put down rom-coms or fun easy stories, but in truth, they take some skill. (Not that I’m admitting to skill, but I’ve written a lot of years to be able to create people like Ms. Hazel and Thomas). It helps, by the way, when a writer loves her characters. Anyway, THANK you for your comment.

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    • What a good comment, Nicki. You’re right, as much as “Ms. Hazel” has a bad impression about herself and what she’s done/been in her life, she must have done something right as that Sunday School teacher. II think Thomas may help her “see the Light” in more ways than one. ❤

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