56: Memory and Imagination

I imagine I’ve met this woman before, or maybe her sister when she was a girl. She smiles as if she knew me. I’m disarmed by her appearance which seems to tell me something. Think, I try to think. But it’s useless. If friendship weren’t serious, if lives weren’t entangled, one life could be invested in many, the past erased, promises paid, regrets absolved, lives revised as if they were only written on paper. This familiarity won’t leave me alone, as though it had more cause than anything I remember. Shall I act on this presumption? Shall I ignore this opportunity? If this were a test, how should I fail?