Leonard floated along, as the train took him from station to station the way it always did. He had ridden the route so many times that he didn’t pay attention. He was secure in his destination- a tiny old-fashioned apartment set snugly between two high rise condominiums. In some ways it was home. In others ways it was not.

With the same dull tone, the doors opened. Mechanically, Leonard stepped out of the train and onto the platform jam-packed with other business persons returning to their homes.

It was all so much the same, that he hardly took any notice of it at all. Staring at the back of the person’s head in front of him, in this case a short dark woman with equally short dark hair, he kept in step with the crowd; an assembly line of tired flesh.

In between dozens of shifting shoulders, Leonard caught sight of a memory he had long forgotten.

Marie.

Lifting one hand to brush her hair back away from her face, she made eye contact. A man in a striped suit crossed between them. Afterwards, she was gone.