He's walking the dog when he sees her. Or thinks he sees her. It used to happen a lot. 

She's a half block away, about to cross the street, pushing a stroller, facing away from him just enough that he can't be sure. When she reaches the other side, she stops, bends down to take a look at her passenger, and crouching, looks around as if searching for something when his heart stops.

It's her. Jesus, it's her. No. It can't be her. What the hell would she be doing in Buffalo?

He supposes that's a fair question to ask of anyone, really.

He stands there, stock still, trying to calm a heart that's practically defibrillated itself and roared back to life, claxon-like. 

When she stands and aims the stroller in his direction, it's as if she's underwater, her hair undulating in slow motion, her movements slow and graceful, her approach unfolding like a car accident as she sees him, her brows first furrowing, her eyes squinting, confusion and then joy and disbelief and terror blooming up through her expressive features like a time-lapse nature film.

When she stops, they are less than four feet apart, separated by a wheeled contraption that contains a life and a story he can barely even contemplate. Their mouths hang open, their eyes huge, round, unblinking, glassy.

He tries to swallow, the dryness in his throat making the action almost comical in exaggeration, and she mirrors the compulsion, like some perversion of a Marx brothers gag.

Eyes glued to hers, he slowly shakes his head, and smiles in wonder as her tiny reflection does the same. Lured by a repeating glint, his gaze lowers for just an instant to her sternum. The pendant she has worn on a gold chain for every day since he first met her all those years ago bounces merrily, amplifying the rapid and violent heartbeat beneath it.

When he realizes that even her heartbeat is mimic, he closes his eyes against it, against her, and keeps them closed, willing her to disappear, willing this to be a dream, a hallucination, willing it to be anything but what he knows it is: a cruel interruption of lives in progress.