Memories

A man walks down the busy sidewalk. He stretches his arms out to either side. Black painted fingernails scrape at the passers-by. He closes his eyes and walks straight ahead.

A homeless man, crouched by a building, watches him pass. Black shoes click softly on the pavement. For a single moment, in all the rush of the city, in all the crowd, the man seems to stand alone. Click, click, click. A breeze flows gently by. Time slows to almost a standstill.

Half an hour later, a young woman walks by. Her toe catches on a crack in the pavement, and she stumbles. Her arm flies outward. And brushes the man who still crouches by the building. An incidental spark leaps from her finger to his shoulder.

She rises and continues on.

And remembers.