In the time long gone, when there were more gods than humans populating the world, when every frowning of the sky, every flower and wind had their own god, Ancient Greeks realised that every human missed something. In fact, the gods had made the first humans as sphere-shaped beings that had two heads, four arms and four legs. And, most importantly, they had two hearts and two brains. It took the gods a little time to see that the creative mistake lay in the excellence of their divine work, in making the humans so good that their perfection could threaten even them. Because of that the gods split the newly created beings into two humans, into halves that had one head, two legs, two arms, one brain, and one heart each. They scattered them all over the world, hoping they would not find each other and once again become beings mightier than gods. What they failed to take into account was the need that the halves felt for each other. Ever since then, to this very day, as the Ancient Greek story goes, humans have longed for their second half and looked for it all over the world. Many wasted their whole life in searching, often unconsciously, and not succeeding in finding what they were looking for, in becoming whole again. However, there are the ones, oh so fortunate, who succeeded in finding their halves. Then they became one again, one human created by gods, with two hearts beating together, a being stronger and better than any god, joined in love.

A date, a rendezvous,  is, therefore, also important for the heart expecting it, almost popping out from the bosom, hoping for its pair; and also for the butterflies that spread their wings and fly agitatedly in the stomach, causing quivers to the tips of the toes. It is not important how old a human is; the rendezvous knows about the green ones, immature and naïve, just as well as the ones who are “just right”, or the ones who might be seen as unfitting for such a meeting. The rendezvous knows better, it has had experiences since the beginning of time till this day telling it that years are no measure of love. There are ones who are just learning, and others revising the knowledge acquired, hopeful that the right thing is right there before them, the unique, the inimitable. Even if the rendezvous fails to grow into what it is expected to, it is still quite special, for the happiness or disappointment, a lesson or a reward. Even when it lasts shorter than a dewdrop in summer morning or as long as daylight during that same summer, a rendezvous is worth its name and purpose. And still, there are the dates that last forever, thus proving that the human halves have found each other, and have no intention of interrupting the primordial joy this ultimate encounter brings.

There are people who do not see a date as a beginning but as a happy ending, no matter how it ends. Those are the ones who live for yearning and hunches, cherishing within the need for secret looks, for wandering after the one longed for, for accidental, short conversations after such a long wait, for dreaming of the final invitation phrased in a few words that can hardly be understood for nerves, for quivering with stage fright. It is happiness enough for them, they do not ask for more. And contrary to them, there are the ones who expect everything from a date, and expect it at once. In every rendezvous they see the final act, the happy ending; they find it hard to accept a repeated mistake, and as years pass they are ever more reluctant to decide on the encounter that fails to fulfil their most secret wishes and dreams.

However, no matter who lives for what and what one expects, unlike other meetings in the course of life, a rendezvous leaves an eternal mark; one date or countless dates, they are indelible spots in the memory. As yet nobody has managed to forget a date, no matter how short it was or how wrong the choice was. For it is in a rendezvous that hope hopes, that life lives, therein a seed of love awaits; it is a yearning for the missing half, for a joining that would give birth to a being that even the gods will envy.

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Randes* in Serbian – a date, meeting, rendezvous, especially between persons attracted to each other, m. colloq.