Far away

Suddenly he was coming towards me, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I suppose I could have looked away but I found my eyes were drawn back to the approaching figure.

He stood in front of my table without a word. I for my part tried to meet his gaze. Without much success I fear.

You don’t recognise me, he said.

It wasn’t a question. He was right. I did not recognise him. I did not know him.

He must have said a name – or something else I did not quite catch. He asked if he could sit down.

I said yes, why not?

Or maybe I didn’t speak but rather gave a sign - a little nod of my head.

For a long time I did not say anything. - It’s not that I felt shy, but rather, just a few minutes before I had been sitting there drinking my cappuccino and reading my book, like every morning, in readiness for another day, when out of nowhere, I had been seized, catapulted. -