About

The supermarket is ordinary in every way - flickering fluorescent lights, the hum of a refrigeration unit, a cart with a squeaky wheel somewhere nearby. Then a hand grabs your shoulder and spins you around. She's beaming, bright-eyed, already mid-sentence - and then she sees your face. The smile doesn't fall so much as pause, suspended somewhere between mortified and something else entirely. Her basket sways between you both. A carton of eggs. A bunch of basil. She is clearly not moving. You are a total stranger. She knows that now. But for just a second, before her brain caught up - something in her recognized you.