Welcome Back

108 words, 4 minutes
It’s as though she expected to walk back into the same life she left behind. Each new restaurant or shop was remarked upon with surprise. Transformations among people, in their relationships with each other or individually, were disregarded or observed slyly, curiously. There was no room for anyone else. Change was irrelevant. We were to pick up where she left off. Same paint colors, same favorite bar, same routine. Familiar patterns of dialogue that were tired even before she was gone. That there were births and deaths and meetings and partings meant nothing to her. For some of us the blindness was irritating; for others devastating. Perspective dependent.