People-Watching At The Bus Stop
“You go first.”
“Sure. Let’s see; his name is Vincent and he’s 34 years old. He’s on his way to his first sky-diving lesson, and he’s talking to his parents on the phone because they’re understandably concerned about their only son hurling himself out of an airplane.”
“You really think he’s 34?”
“Well, what about them?”
“Maureen, Gemma, Taylor, Jamie and Seth. 27, 28, 28, 29, and 28 years old, respectively. They all went to high school together, but they’ve stayed in touch since then, somehow. They’ve decided to ‘put the garbage back in the bag’—Seth’s words for convincing everyone to get into his old car and go wherever those four wheels may take them—for the weekend. As hastily-planned reunions go, this one seems to be fine, and Maureen seems to have been convinced to go on a date with Lewis, one of Gemma’s friends from her job at a local coffee shop.
“Though Maureen is at first apprehensive about the idea, having only intended to reconnect in person with old friends, she and Lewis will notice they have chemistry and agree to go to a concert together the following Saturday. Lewis will move in with Maureen a month later, and they’ll stay together for three years, parting ways reluctantly but amicably for reasons neither can quite explain, but both seem to expect.
“Two years later, Lewis will hear of Maureen’s marriage to Ashley, a mutual acquaintance. Five years later, Maureen will hear of Lewis’s death. He will have been found unresponsive at the bottom of a flight of stairs and pronounced dead within minutes at the age of 38. Maureen will, upon finding his name in the obituaries, at first, wonder why it seems so familiar.”
“Well, then.”
“Oh—and her favorite color is red.”
