Displaying affection

On a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia I wear my new band t-shirt. Black with a photo, it’s a special possession. The album cover it displays, Everything but the Girl’s Walking Wounded, came out in 1996. I chose it for this cross country flight specifically for the audience, for a group of Americans. I’ve worn it around Tokyo twice, and Hong Kong once, without comment. Halfway through the flight I’m returning to my seat when it happens - a man stops me, politely. “I love that album,” he starts. “I just discovered it like a year ago, and wow, I listen to it all the time.” Me too, I say. Me too. “I’ve been telling everybody about them, I’d never heard of them before.” He’s so excited to have met someone who knows his new obsession. I’m so excited to have someone recognize mine. I saw them live in London, I tell him after a minute. They’re playing small clubs again, twenty years later. It was wonderful. I tell him thanks for stopping me, that I’m so glad to have met someone…