Stranger

Perhaps it was because we had never been strangers to begin with; that we had always somehow known each other deep in our souls; that the second time I laid eyes on her after years of distance I fell in love with her; that we had held hands through joys and pains and wept together about the failures of the world around us; that we never, ever felt in our hearts the natural coolness one feels towards a stranger. 

It seemed impossible just months ago that we would ever be anything but together. 

Yet today we passed each other in the hallway of our past memories and both stared blankly ahead, avoiding eye contact. Halfway through we met, shoulder-to-shoulder in the narrow corridor. We did not touch. I did not stop. 

And here we are, strangers for the first time after a lifetime of knowing her.