The Perfect Stranger

ALL THINGS RETURN WITH time. But you have to go looking for them. You’ve got to be ready for them. You’ve got to be willing to take the risk over and over again.

I had learned to trust my instincts. I had learned to pay attention to those sudden, fleeting thoughts

I knew the words to say, the looks to give.

I liked that he was the type of person who knew exactly how long it would take to get somewhere

How quickly the building turned empty and stale

My heart was in my throat

I was an adolescent when I first started to see myself as two people. The feeling that you are at all times both subject and object. That I was both walking down the hall and watching myself walk down the hall

I was not good at the passive, at the waiting

You cannot take without a give

We took photos with disposable cameras or with purchased rolls of film when the moment was big enough—got them printed at the drugstore, put them in boxes, and lost them in moves