Memory

Have you ever had a time when you caught eyes with someone, and they seemed familiar, yet you couldn’t place them? Was it someone from your past? Someone you encountered at a party? Perhaps it was a friend of a friend, or maybe even a former co-worker? Were they a friend? Or were they an enemy? All you know is that they are familiar to you somehow, and that mystery leaves you anxious.

Cecelia “Celie” Moore has a similar experience while walking home on a dirt road…

On the road, I stopped to watch some skylarks and egrets in the nearby field. I was only there for a moment when I heard a vehicle pull up behind me, the slow crunch of gravel under its tires sounding incredibly loud against the quiet. I turned around in surprise, as the road had very little traffic. The baby blue car that slowed alongside me was older, long and wide, with round headlights. Tail fins stood up over blood-red tail lights that sparkled in the sunlight, and it pulled around to a stop in front of me. I hadn’t seen one like it before – at least, not that I could remember, and not since I had been in Ireland. 

I could see three silhouettes in the car, each face hidden by the reflective glare on the windows. The driver’s side door opened, and a man got out. He was quite tall, tan, and thin, with salt-and-pepper hair, and as he turned around, I noticed his long face was surprisingly young. Dressed all in gray, he watched me with eyes the color of a sea storm. 

Something about him seemed familiar…