Magic & Cicadas

On the brick streets of Tyler in a great neighborhood, I had been living in a big house with a lot of great people spending my time smoking pot, drinking wine, listening to live music and having some kind of relationship with a friend who I believed in with all my heart was and is something great, but for some reason, I couldn't express myself with him, there was an inner nervousness that I hated, but couldn't do anything about ... except leave. I am good at leaving people, in fact, I should receive some kind of reward for it, but before I left, I remember telling him that the day I was to open my Pilates studio would be the day I would open myself up to a different avenue of expression and I couldn't help but do just that. Just like that Cicada coming out of its shell. I was coming out of mine too.

I didn't think much about it but I would see him around, here and there, at Brady's Coffee Shop and even while I sat on the front porch of that big 'ol house smoking a cigarette I would see him sitting in his Landcruiser at the light. As I think back on it all I am pretty sure that he caught my eye because of the steadiness and the calm I could sense in him. I wanted that steady calmness for myself, and I knew it.

The morning the Pilates Studio of Tyler opened, I was at the coffee shop, which happens to be right in front of the studio and I was standing around talking to some people about the opening and there he was, in the crowd listening to me talk, and then showed up at the studio a little later where my friend Grace told him he looked like Billy Bob Thorton he just said "I am Billy Bob" and handed me his card. He returned later and asked if I would come to his studio that afternoon and pop balloons while he took photos, I said sure and he asked if I would wear what I had worn earlier that morning. I had been hanging out at the studio on and off that day and probably changed clothes 4 times.

He had me when he called that rattlesnake "cute" and he meant it. He was just telling me a story about his time alone spent in the desert while I was popping balloons and he was taking photos. It was an easy conversation we were having and then I left to go teach my one and only class of the opening day. He came back after I taught and showed me the photos and asked if I happened to be a single woman and I didn't even hesitate, I said "as a matter of fact I am". "Want to go to dinner?" he asked and I replied" Of course, let's do Don Juan's" since I was only eating cabbage and beans back then. Two weeks later I moved in with him, that was March of 2004.

On hot July evenings with mosquitoes buzzing around, Robert, fly swatter in hand will disappear into the night smacking water bugs on the trees, the house, and the ground saving the Cicadas.

Photo by Robert Langham III