Summer Love with Sky

Eye-Opening Moments Unleashed are real-life stories of adversity, encounters, and perspectives intertwined. In this episode you will hear about Summer Love with Sky.

                                                                                       
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Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode #213 of Eye-Opening Moments Unleashed where you’ll hear stories of adversity, encounters, and perspectives intertwined. They are moments that can lift your spirits, give you some food for thought, or move you. For the introspective mind that likes to reflect, discover, and find solutions or meaning in a complex life, this is for you. I’m your host Emily Kay Tan. In this episode, you will hear about Summer Love with Sky.

Summer Love with Sky

While doing some spring cleaning, I opened a round tin can of memorabilia. In it was a memo a front desk clerk wrote to me nearly forty years ago. Forty years ago! Why do I still have it? Why have I not discarded it? I looked at the short message. It told me that someone would pick me up at ten on Saturday morning to see my little brother, who was also on this tropical island for the summer. My little eight-year-old brother, whom I did not grow up with, stayed with a family while he was put in school to learn a foreign language for the summer. I was in another foreign language program and remained at a school dormitory. I looked at the memo again and put it back into my round tin can of memorabilia. I will not part with it. The memo showed the date when I first met Sky.

Sky was the man who picked me up to visit my brother. He was the adult son of the family my brother stayed with. He was appointed to pick me up and return me to the dormitory. He picked me up by showing me the way to the bus and getting on it with me. He spoke to me in his native language, while I trembled inside because I did not understand everything he said and did not respond much. I believe he considered my quiet demeanor a positive trait or that I was a shy girl. And he had no problem trying to pull me out of my shell. The foreign language, coupled with his magnetic force, had my insides shaking. His deep, masculine voice and foreign tongue made my stomach churn. I was feeling queasy and afraid that he would discover how frightened I was feeling talking with him. I was eighteen, and it was my first time stepping out of my home country. He was twenty-three.

Soon after arriving at Sky's home, I saw a scooter by the front and was curious who owned it. Walking into the house, I met the family my brother stayed with: a mother, two brothers, and a sister. Their friendliness helped me to begin crawling out of my shell, and I enjoyed dinner with Sky's mother and siblings. Still curious about the scooter's owner, I asked my brother to find out and let it be known that I wanted to ride on it. I was sure he would find out for me, and I couldn't wait to ride on a scooter.

The next time I visited, Sky picked me up by bus but drove me home on his scooter. His mother tried to stop him and said it would be too dangerous or unsafe with a passenger like me, a foreigner, on it. She was afraid something could happen to me, and then her family would be responsible. But Sky knew I wanted to ride on the scooter. He got on his scooter, and I hopped on, sitting behind him. With two willing people on the scooter, his mom probably didn't want to make a scene and only helplessly watched us leave. I was excited to be on the scooter, but I was ecstatic to be on it with Sky. My summer love with Sky started to bubble.

Standing on buses with Sky in close proximity made my nerves jitter. I hoped he didn't hear it in my voice. I still didn't understand everything he said, so I only politely nodded and smiled. Sometimes, he took me on his scooter, and I was happy to be closer to him. He showed me some tourist sights, but what stayed in my memory was when he took me to the music store. He wanted to buy me a gift before I left and told me it was one of his favorite pieces of music and that he wanted to share it with me. I did not understand what kind of music he was talking about or its significance. 

It took nearly forty years before I discovered the meaning of the music Sky shared. I had kept what he gave me, a cassette tape entitled Butterfly Lovers, for nearly forty years. I didn't want to part with it. But as I was preparing to move abroad, I had to get rid of more things than I wanted. And since cassettes are outdated and I couldn't play them without a cassette player, which would take up space, I decided to look online to see if I could find Butterfly Lovers. I found it! It was instrumental music expressing a tragic love story. I did not know until I finally searched for it. Since I found it online, I finally donated and parted with that cassette and all my other cassettes and cassette players. The title, the story, the music, and the memory of Sky giving it to me are engraved in my memory to stay with me.

Our time together was not long; it was only two short months, eight weeks, or eight times I met with him, yet everything from Sky remains in my heart. I still have the memo and letters he wrote me after I left. I still have that cassette in my heart. Though I accidentally broke a porcelain deep green platform with a strawberry and pen holder on it when I was moving, I still remember it because it was from him. He knew I was a student then and mailed me a gift for a "student." I thought it was gaudy and ugly, but I treasured it because it was from him. Anything from Sky was of value to me. I do not know how to explain this love that hardly blossomed into anything, but I do know it meant something to me because I only keep things from those who meant an enormous amount to me. There may be no significance to the summer love with Sky, but he etched a spot in my memory bank.

I am sad that it never blossomed into anything and that I have not found him yet, but I can dream. I dream that one day I can see him again and show him the memos and letters he wrote to me, and he will show me that he kept my letters, too. Like some would say, if it were meant to be, fate would bring us together again, or serendipity would make it happen. If not, he will stay in my memory. Even if I grow old and forget, I still have three stories written about him and published in three different books to remind me!

Key Takeaway: Though it was but a brief interlude, it is a lifetime memory.

Next week, you will hear a new real-life story called Some Frightening Moments. If you enjoyed this episode of Eye-Opening Moments Unleashed, please text someone and ask them what they think about this podcast, or go to www.inspiremereads.com and leave a message. Thank you for listening!