the other side

This summer I had lunch with a ghost. I didn't know it at first. We met on the bus from New York and we talked and decided to stop by the diner by South Station, to continue the conversation. It'd been cloudy and rainy all day, but the sun was starting to come out.

She was from Seattle originally, and moved out here a year or so before I did. We'd probably passed each other at our favorite hangouts multiple times and not realized it--or, well, maybe. We had coffee and kept talking--I don't even remember what it was about anymore. But I remember the clouds broke and it was right at sunset and the sun was coming through the window in such a way and I looked back over and she was already fading, still laughing at whatever had just been said--then she was gone. And the waiter didn't seem to understand that I had an entirely different reason to be upset.