As he grew older he found it harder to recognize people. He still could recognize everyone, but there was a time in high school when he couldn't imagine not being able to see and old classmate and knowing it was them right away. Even if they were to meet in
Berlin
or something.
But nowadays, unless he saw them in a place connected to their past... being around here basically.. he didn't found it increasingly difficult to know whether he was looking at a face from the past or just a lookalike.
In high school people looked like who they were. It was only once he travelled around that he noticed that people resembled each other. That there was a certain number of 'looks' for every given ethnic background. And the way people looked was not unique at all.
This realization struck quite loud while he was viewing portraits at the
Louvre
one day. When he saw faces that could've been the face of his old college friends. The only thing different here was the garb. Fancy royal garb, but underneath the facade was a certain face. Same facial hair and facial structure. Until that trip to the museum he had felt that people in the past were people in the past. Completely different and detached from the people of today: him and the people he knew. But no... they were not unique at all.
He barely came back to
Westcity
these days. Didn't have a reason to. None of his friends had stuck around after graduation.
But on this random end of
October
he had the itch to go someplace familiar yet unknown to him. An
uncanny
place. To him his old stomping grounds fit just the bill.
It was familiar because he had gone to university here. Had lived a significant portion of his life and had experienced a significant amount of growth right here. At one point in his life he had thought that maybe that significant phase would never end. Alas it had, and now he was returning to see what it really was like. See the place with new eyes. He didn't know what he was to find.
He went to his favorite shops and places. He even caught a movie alone in a small theater he used to take the bus to once a month or so whenever he was feeling moody and wanted to get away from his friends. There was no good movie playing, there never were these days, but it didn't matter. He picked the next decent movie, bought a ticket and even bought
popcorn
. He used to never buy snacks at the theater as he'd considered it a waste of money. But this time around he wanted the full cinema experience.
After the film he came out and was surprised by how bright it was outside. You always forgot about that when you went into a
movie theater
while the sun was out. It wasn't a long movie so he didn't yet have an appetite. But he wanted to sit in a restaurant and kill some time. Do some people watching. So he went to a bistro he used to go to and ordered a
coffee
and a
seltzer water
.
He sat there trying to read a physical book.
Crime and Punishment
by
Fyodor Dostoevsky
. He couldn't get into it that day, or the day before, or the day before that... which was weird because just two weeks before he had been totally allured into the world of Dostoevsky's
St. Petersburg
. And now once he took the flight out to here and suddenly he didn't feel it. Maybe that was a good thing about vacation. Who knew.
Still, he enjoyed having the paperback in his hands. Flipping and rustling through the pages. Seeing which sheets had been stained with coffee and tea. It was enough stimulation that he didn't seek more
dopamine
from his phone. So long as he still had seltzer water to sip and a coffee to nurse.
Then while sitting there he saw her face. She used to sit at the same cafe as him and they'd even had a few conversations. But he never went as far as to exchanging contact information with her. But he'd looked her up on
Facebook
and knew who she was. Her social details at the least.
She had walked into the bistro. She'd ordered some food and a
tea
and was now sitting there sipping on it and staring out into the distance. He pretended to read while watching her.