This one really is a composer who has written several movie scores.
        I’m in awe and on the phone mostly say ‘ah’, ‘erm’, ‘well’ and ‘actually’.
        He hangs up soon but calls again a few hours later. He apologizes for having been odd but he was in an odd mood. He had just given his first interview for a movie magazine, which was odd.
        He uses the word odd a lot.
        When we meet I understand why.
        It is the word that sums him up. It is his quintessential adjective.
        He is tall and skinny. His head sticks out of hunched shoulders, upward and forward like an odd turtle. He wears a disconcerting frown and his eyes blink continuously.
        First I think this is because he considers me a nuisance.
        It takes a while to understand that it is just the way he looks.
        Since he is a creative artist I feel pressured to entertain him with my own creativity.
        When he isn’t impressed and I run out of things to say I drag his life story out of him.
        It feels like pulling teeth.
        He has a mathematics degree but has always enjoyed playing around on keyboards.
        One day his mate, a movie director, asked him if he could use his sound bites in a movie.
        He split up with his girlfriend only recently.
        He cannot remember why.
        The way he says it sounds as if he would like to give her a call right now and ask her help him refresh his memory.

After our date we send e-mails in which we agree we both felt an odd sympathy but behaved like depolarised magnets, which repel even when they try to attract.
        Oddly enough, we don’t stop e-mailing.
        He asks if I could sell a modern opera.
        I say yes and dream of becoming his best friend, the one he will ask along when he gets nominated for an Academy Award.

We meet again to watch ‘Unbreakable’ at the cinema. We find it unbearably bad and have a passionate movie discussion. I like his lecture on film music and whether and when it should be noticeable.
        When he talks about music he loosens up and stops blinking.
        For a moment the frown disappears and he is almost attractive.

In subsequent e-mails we confess that date two was better than date one.
        We watch another movie together.
        On the bus home, he doesn’t utter a word, stares silently into space, is so far away I don’t dare to speak.

We e-mail a few more times but cannot decide on which movie to watch next.
        When he doesn’t reply to one of my mails I don’t ask why and delete his e-mail address and phone number.