* I knew G during my military service. I wrote about him more than once in this blog. Here. By the end of our conscription, we exchanged telephone numbers and mail addresses (No usage of internet yet) and promised to keep contact. Afterwards, my life took a new path that drove me away from many faces and places I used to be around.
Two years later I was in a crowded standing restaurant in downtown with a colleague. We were having a quick lunch before heading to a meeting nearby. There, I saw G entering in a hurry, accompanied by a young woman in her early twenties. She physically looked very unfortunate. Moreover, her clothes were messy. They were busy talking, and then they stopped for a moment behind us looking for a vacant spot. I thought the noisy restaurant was not the best place to initiate a conversation with him. Besides, my colleague and I were a bit late for our meeting. When we went out I asked my colleague if he saw the couple, and told him the guy was an old friend. He commented "But the girl looked a complete mess. When they stood up behind us, she pressed her butt hard against mine".
Six years later, I was working out in a new gym that opened close to my parents' house, and I found G there lifting weights. I went directly to him and mentioned his full name, but he did not seem to recognize me. I thought it was amusing to let him guess who I might be. He said at least I should give him a hint if we had been together in a school, university or previous work. I said "We were conscripts together in the army. Tell me whom had you known well back then?" He replied "I knew X, Y and ...." I said "I am X". It was funny my name came first when he recalled his army days, but still he could not recognize my face. I knew I looked much different, but not that different. We talked and again exchanged our contact information, but never saw each other again.
* I met her during my two year stay in France many years ago. I saw her for the first time standing on the platform of the train station in a small town in central France. My friend smiled and said hi. When I asked him who was she, he said a friend of a friend. In the train we started to talk and that was just the beginning of a relationship for which it is difficult to give a qualification. Friendship, romance or something in between? I don’t know, but what I know there was something genuine, no matter how it could be called. The complicated circumstances were not playing for the favor of the relationship though, and it ended prematurely.
Her memory only popped up in my mind 3 or 4 times in the past twenty years, nevertheless few weeks ago, when I was surfing the internet, it crossed my mind to search for her. First, I could not remember her family name, but it flashed up as it was written on the back of an envelope in which she sent me once a letter to clear up some sensitive matters. I kept the letter for years before I threw it away.
On Facebook, she was there! Or at least someone with the same name and similar look plus the time touch. Unexpected and pleasant surprise. The second surprise she is living with a female partner. The third surprise is the right wing tone in her views.
I feel tempted to contact her, but something tells me what for? She might be uninterested to revive an old friendship. She might even be hating to recall her difficult life back then, and a “Salut, Est-ce que vous êtes ___ ___ qui a habité la ville de ____ ? Si oui, vous vous souvenez de moi ?! Si non, excusez-moi de vous avoir dérangé’’ might be just ignored.
