Things That Bang

She couldn’t take her eyes off his face. It was an instant attraction, an old familiarity she did not want to acknowledge. She was with her husband and kids. Where did she know him from? A bond tugged them. They knew, they looked at each other for a while.

The kids demanded her attention. There was nothing to be achieved. She was happily married and he? He knew her well but she only felt the emotion that embroiled them in a torrid affair in some forgotten time.

In her movements he saw the hesitation and the confusion he was well acquainted with. She hadn’t changed. She still bottled up her feelings, forever chained to love; to living.

The airbus gently stopped near the airport terminal and people began to get off with their bags.

She settled the baby against her waist and looked forward. She tried to ignore the fierce tug that demanded she drop everything and go to him. What was wrong with her? Her movements’ jerky.

He let people fall between them, let people push him back with quick apologies when they bumped him. He fell back, right to the end and watched her struggle with her bags and her family through the windows of the bus.

She was leaving him, again. The bond was breaking. She would soon forget him but he’d remember her. His lover from a life lived centuries ago. It was his curse to remember all the lives he lived, to remember those who lived with him and he still loved them and more than ever he loved her.