The Taxi Incident

For a silent second, everything seemed wrong. She was the last person he wanted to see, at the moment. He thought about telling the taxi driver to go on, but she gave him a kind smile that insisted he stay.

"Hello, James, its been awhile," she said politely. She smoothed out her dress, to get rid of the wrinkles, but she returned to her prim, proper and delicate state.

A lump seemed to hit James' throat and he croaked out, "Hello, Violet. How, how have you been?" He carefully eyed her curly, russet hair, slim lilac dress, but he felt the sweating urge to not look long.

"Same old, same old, darling. Work is dreadful

in this accursed city and everyone seems to be searching for money and love. Isn't that a ridiculous pursuit?" she questioned with a sarcastic, fluttering laugh.

James did not answer immediately. He had always wanted to see Violet again, but this was unexpected. Before he'd sleep or during his showers, he would rehearse lines that he wanted to tell her, but now, with her sitting right there, these lines fled his mind, rendering them useless.

"Of course that's ridiculous, Violet," he said blankly, "you always were different."

She stared back, somewhat in shock and somewhat angered.

"Really? How so?"

"No, no...I didn't