Els & Don
Don was living the life of an ex pat, an exiled freedom fighter in a dusty town on a dusty coast. Once a champion of liberty and hope, the years had made him hardened and bitter, a man who stuck his neck out for nobody. His home in exile was a city marked by transients—military officers, resistance fighters and refugees, gamblers and scoundrels, and black market dealers just trying to make a buck. But all walks found their way to Don's Café Américain, a swank nightclub where politics faded into gin and jazz.
It was a brisk December night when Don's fates would forever realign. Don's Café Américain was crowded and lively as usual when Elizabeth, the source of all his bitterness and heartbreak, walked through the door. “Of all the gin joints in all the world,” Don said, “she walks into mine.” Elizabeth looked to the piano player, whom she knew from bygone days in Paris, and asked him to play, As Time Goes By. “Play it once, Sam,” Elizabeth entreated, “for old time's sake.” And all Don's bitterness began to unravel as he remembered Paris.
But though the magic of Paris had been rekindled, they could not linger at the piano. Elizabeth, a famed rebel, was fleeing and in grave danger! The oppressors were hot on her trail, and only Don could help her escape. There were some complications surrounding certain letters of transit, an evil Major from whom Don valiantly rescued Elizabeth, and a fellow named Victor. Naturally Elizabeth chose Don, and not Victor, and they absconded together aboard a plane. “Don,” she said, as the plane disappeared down the foggy runway, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.”
Six years later, they were engaged on a rooftop in Fez, Morocco, and took up life in Washington, D.C., with a charismatic spaniel named Gatsby and a contrary feline named Tiberius.