A Group Date

 Here is a cute, true story about a date I once had. Enjoy!

 Meagan and James. One of them was involved in that group date!

“Are you going to the movie the German club put on for tonight?” Ken, a fellow student and teaching assistant at the university I attended, asked.

I put down my pen and looked up. We were teaching the lower German courses, and I felt an obligation.

“What movie is it?”

“Star Wars.”

“Oh. I love that movie.”

“Let’s meet there and we can watch it together.”

“I’m not sure. I might bring my roommates.”

“That’s fine with me. I’ll be looking for you.”

The girls wanted to go with me to see the movie, so later that evening we walked up the hill and onto campus. We found the lecture room the German club used for a movie theater and decided on our seats.

            Soon Ken showed up. I introduced Marit, Liesel, and Meagan. Before he had time to talk to them, the room darkened and the movie started. Ken had brought some trail mix, enough for us all. We handed the trail mix bag back and forth while watching the show, and laughed at the way the German language sometimes changed the meaning. The girls didn’t know much German, but they had seen the movie so many times, they knew it by heart. They obviously enjoyed themselves.

Later, we stood by the door talking. People drifted away around us. I thought it was time to go, too.

“It’s late. Let me accompany you,” Ken said. Together all five of us walked down the hill to the apartment where I lived with the girls, my three daughters.

That night we talked about the kinds of things elementary school girls liked. A few weeks later Ken and I met again, just the two of us this time, and got to know each other better, by sharing our feelings about our former marriages, about divorce, and the healing we eventually experienced.

Watching Star Wars in German wasn’t a real date, but it led to our marriage and much happiness for all of us, including Marit, Liesel, and Meagan.