returning, pt. ii

The last thing I expected, when we finally returned home, was for everything to somehow be the same. It shouldn't have been possible. But somehow (I suspect Charlotte was involved, but I'm afraid to ask what she did) the city felt just like it did before everything went wrong. Sure, a lot of the businesses had changed, and of course people had come and gone since we left, but when I walked into the corner bar the bartender just said "You're back? Been a while."

"Yeah," I told her. "I've been away."

"New arm looks good."

"Thanks."

And that was that. She poured me the same drink I always got and we chatted, as if none of the past year had happened. As if things really could just be normal again. And when I walked back home and Nora was curled up reading a book, she smiled the same way she always used to, like she didn't really want to but couldn't quite help it, and just like we had before we sat together in silence.

I know that the city will be different in a thousand little ways that neither of us noticed, just like we are. But sometimes it's nice to return to a superficial similarity, to allow ourselves to believe that nothing has changed.