The Book Nook

32

I moved over to the man I believed to be Mister Kim, crossing amongst the smaller flowers, the tulips and the petunias.

"You're Mister Kim, aren't you?" I said, almost instantly wishing I'd attempted a more formal greeting. "I-I'm sorry, I mean - "

"Yes," he answered kindly. "That's me." He pulled his attention away from the flowers.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to - It's just, I - My friend has told me about you. She knows you. I thought I recognized you from what she's told me. Thought I'd maybe say hello."

"Who is your friend, if I may ask?" He arched his eyebrows out of genuine curiosity.

"Alexandria. She comes here often..."

His face lit up at her name.

"Oh! Alexandria! She's your friend, you say? And call me Cedric."

"Yes. Told me about you. And your book. Told me I should read it, that it's amazing."

"Have you?"

"Well, no, not yet..."

"Great! Then we can start off as perfect strangers. No presuppositions attached."

I liked the man already.

We stood there amongst the garden flowers, talking casually about the weather and the flowers and his love for nature. I said to him that I could understand why he came here a lot, that it was so peaceful I too could become one of those people who sauntered amongst the memorials and found such peace.

"Our club's getting larger by the day," he joked.

I told him vaguely about how I had come to meet Alexandria through working at the bookstore, how she had told me the story of their meeting that had happened right in this cemetery and that many meetings have since reoccurred.

"Actually, if you walked a little further up," he pointed beyond the tall garden, "you'd find the bench she first saw me sitting on. Came up and sat right beside me, no qualms about speaking to a gloomy-looking old man like me. It was like a Haruki Murakami novel. Older men always inexplicably running into interesting young women."

I laughed.

"She never seemed like a regular young person," he continued. "Forgive me for saying young person. I know that sounds very old hat, but it's a phrase I like to use despite it making me sound like a very old person."

I listened to Mister Kim as intensely as I imagined Alexandria had done so many times before me. He had a very calming voice, very pleasant on the ears. He was one of those men who'd do very well in public book readings.

"I was befuddled as to why a young girl like her had taken up a similar past time as an elderly fellow like me. 'But why?' I remember asking her. 'Isn't there more to life than being perpetually lonely? You're so young; you have places to go and people to meet. You have passions to pursue. Haven't you ever felt what it's like to be passionate about something? Or someone?' What I can tell you is that it's the greatest feeling ever known. I don't know why you young people tend to become so withdrawn. You're missing out on more than you could possibly know."

I didn't laugh aloud this time, but I definitely could have chuckled at the thought of Alexandria being called out like that. Oh, if it weren't Mister Kim doing it, I'm sure she would get right angry. But he was right, and not just for Alex but for me too. It didn't make me mad, but gave me almost a sense of conviction. Here I was getting a truth-telling from an elderly gentleman and it was making me actually wish to change something. Both internally and externally.

"She was a sad girl when you first spoke to her, wasn't she?" I asked.

"Yes...." he looked down, appearing to take on the sadness that he remembered her holding, like he had taken that burden away from her and devoted to carrying it on himself instead. "Yes, she was a sad girl."

Not even I, even after the length of time of knowing her, didn't truly grasp the extent of her sorrow. It was more than what it appeared to be, that was all I knew. Even with everything she's ever told me and all the things I've gathered on my own, there were still things that I did not know. Whether I would know them in due time or not was only up to her. In the end, I was just enormously glad she had found a gentle soul for a friend like the man who perused floral and gravesites.

Mister Kim's words made me wonder; how do you help a sad person? How do you convince them and show them that the time spent being sad could never be worthwhile and that there's infinitely more to be hopeful about then what might be evident at that moment?

But what was ultimately odd is I found myself thinking these things, but where in recent memory was I living in such a way? I was the most melancholy person I knew until I'd met Alexandria, who bloomed melancholia from the most inner workings of her heart.

I could think these things - that there is 'infinitely more to be hopeful about' - but when had I ever shown that I believed that?

If just being around Mister Kim gave a person such revelatory thoughts, then surely I'd have to meet the man more often.

"At times I feel at such odds," I confided. "Sometimes I think she's the most brilliant, wonderful human being I've ever met. And then sometimes it's like there's an entire other world to her that I have no idea about, and because I don't know anything about it, I can't help or do anything for her. Which makes me insufficient and disposable, like I'm just a temporary amusement for her."

I was surprised at the amount I felt I could trust this man after knowing him for only mere minutes. Alex really did have a supernatural ability for judging character.

He squared up to me and looked me in the eyes. "It appears like you're in the midst of a great dilemma."

I nodded. "I suppose that I am."

"Then I guess the question is," he spoke so simply, "what are you going to do about it?"

So we've finally gotten to meet Mister Kim, the fabled author from Alexandria's story about the man she met in a cemetery. What do you think? 
I can't wait for further conversation with our Narrator and Mister Kim.

Until next week,

Brendan