‏A Strangers Hugs with a Song

In 2013, Albert and I flew from Amsterdam to Lisbon.
I was sitting by the window, and Albert was sitting in an aisle seat at the end.
The middle seat was open.
Let’s agree; we all do it. We hoped it will stay that way.
However, the middle was soon taken by a young passenger who came in and tried to sit in the middle seat.
Albert decided to let him have the aisle and sit next to me.
By now, you know that there is no way I will sit next to someone and not strike up a conversation, especially if it’s a day flight.
Not to mention the fact that there is something in the discomfort of coach seating that gives you the urge to spend time in a fruitful way by engaging in a conversation with strangers.

“You are one lucky guy,” I told the good-looking guy. “I hate to get a middle seat, and look at you, you got aisle seat just like that.”
I giggled, half joking, and we struck up a conversation.
Albert used to say, “Nava, if I would sit next to someone like you on the flight, I would cut my wrist and ask to be seated elsewhere.”
We found out Jason was from Minnesota and was going for the first time to Lisbon, and his sister Anna would join him.

We went on a month-long stay in the Airbnb apartment in the center of Lisbon to meet my Instagram friend Oscar and his then-partner Francisco.
Jason shared that he wrote a song and let me Listen to it. It was a country song about a first kiss and a girl, of course. I loved that song and asked him to send me a link I can keep. As you can tell, I did, and in this clip that I made 10 years ago, I capture the moments in pictures of our time in Lisbon. We met for lunch with Oscar and his sister Ana, and we had a moment in time to remember.

I have never seen Jason since, but we kept in touch on Facebook. He got married to a girl named Ana, too, and they live in North Dakota.
Now that Caroline is out, I sent him the link to the book.
Now, I want him to write a song for what will become the TV series It All Began with Caroline. Yup!
I have a song for the series.
Yep, I know I don’t have a screenplay yet, but you know me.
I had a car before I had a driver’s license.