So a couple years ago I was seeing this girl. She was sweet, smart and absolutely gorgeous. She was also fundamentally wrong for me. We broke up after a couple of months. Then, a couple of moths later she kind of dropped off the face of the planet. I didn’t hear from or about her and I never ran into her anywhere for well over a year, which is odd in this town.
So, I’m on my way to prayer group and I miss my turn so I pull into Forest Park to turn around and I get stuck at a red light while exiting the park. I’m listening to “Scorpio Rising” by Death in Vegas and if anyone feels about that song the way I do, you’ll understand that I was completely zoned out.
I see this girl out of the corner of my eye, and she’s pretty cute. I look and I think, wow, she kind of looks like this girl I used to go out with. Then I realize she is the girl I used to go out with. The light’s still red and I’m stuck, so I look away hoping she’ll pass without seeing me. But it’s taking forever for her to pass me so finally I say; this is ridiculous and I look right at her.
At first we both pretend not to recognize each other. Which is weird. Once we’re too close not to know who each other is, we both get these shocked, screw-faced expressions like we each can’t believe we’re seeing the other. Like we both decided at some point that the other had died and we’re stunned that we’re seeing them alive.
She was walking behind my car and we still hadn’t acknowledged each other. I refused to turn around so I looked in my rearview mirror and saw her staring at the back of my head. So I waived, not to her, but to her reflection. The light changed and I was gone.