He and She

It was a Wednesday. Nine in the morning. She walked in hurriedly fidgeting her long wavy hair out of her face. She felt uneasy somehow. She stood in line and waited. She didn’t know which till she would end up going to so her anxiety grew by the minute. She was alert. Like a tiger in the jungle. No, she was not a tiger. She knew that. She was…a lioness. But she was still uneasy. And afraid. She was looking at the till across from her. She kind of figured her luck would throw her there again. This time she was wrong. She ended up going to him. He was new. She never had the chance to be serviced by him again. She hated numbers. She thought he must have loved them. He was so young. So fresh. He was tall. Of course you couldn’t tell from looking at him straight away because he was sitting down. He was smiley. He started punching numbers. He must have loved numbers. She appalled them. She didn’t know them. She was always scared of them. ‘Evil and wicked’, she’d call them. He started asking her personal details. Her surname. Where she’d work, what was her education, her siblings. She trembled. Why so many questions. She shuddered. She was suspicious of his questioning. He was eager to get information. He had never serviced her before, and yet he felt he knew her from somewhere. He felt so old. She looked younger and somehow so gentle. He felt nervous. He didn’t want to step out of bounds. Could he ask her more information, about her? How? She knew something wasn’t right. He kept punching her details in. He threw his head down and tried to focus on the screen. She stared at him curiously. His hair was black. They had a few white hairs in them. ‘He’s getting older’, she thought. He was clicking his fingers. ‘He must be nervous’, she thought again. Everything was so quiet then. Like it was just ‘she and he’. He had a trimmed beard. Dark color. Deep blue eyes. She felt like swimming in them. She loved swimming in the deep blue. Somehow, she sensed comfortable. She started letting go. Now, he was the one fidgeting about. He felt anxious. What more could he say to her? To make her stay a few minutes longer. She was growing impatient. She had to go soon. She knew that. She felt that a volcano was about to blast and she had to go and stop it. But she didn’t want to miss his serenity. He smiled and told her a story. Of his youth. He said to her that he cannot help but stare cause she looked exactly like a long lost love. She chuckled. A doppelganger. She didn’t feel unique anymore. She was disappointed. She felt ordinary now. And alone. He was so handsome. He felt so far away. They locked eyes. A moment. ‘He and She’. She thought. He thought. It was gone. It suddenly flew away. She said ‘thank you’. He replied softly ‘it was a pleasure’. She then disappeared. Her steps trailed her loss. She was gone so fast. She felt like a cloud. He sense her like rain. Like a boiling flame. It stung them. It let them go. His eyes did not lock again. Her fury left a yearning behind. She longed for his serenity. She regretting letting go so soon. She felt she had to. She was pushed. He felt imprisoned. He wanted to run towards her. He stayed in his seat. He smiled again. He let go of his memory. All the emotions she brought. He felt sad. She felt sad. They were alone, now. 

David Gray - This Year's Love