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Surprise meeting
In which we bump into someone from the past
Do you like it when random people from your past bump into you in the street?
In my case, I generally don’t think I do want to get in touch with many more people from my past. All the friends I wouldn’t want to lose, I’m still in touch with; I still see them at least every year or so. The rest of my schoolfriends, to be honest, I don’t particularly care about. It might sound harsh, but it’s true. If I’d wanted to stay in touch with them, I could have done.
I’m thinking about this now, because yesterday afternoon I was sitting in a pub, having a bit of a munch with a few friends, when some random people start pushing their car into the car park. They come into the pub, and idle time away by the bar waiting for the AA to arrive. I glance at them and don’t think anything of it; but then, listening in, I suddenly recognise one of their voices. I sneak another look: it’s someone I knew fairly well at school.
I hesitated for a moment. But I didn’t particularly want to talk to him. I last saw him ten years ago, and have barely thought about him since. I didn’t want to tell him how my life is going now, what I’ve been up to, who these friends I’m with are, how I know them.
I looked up for a moment, and caught him looking at me, as if he was trying to place where he’d seen me before. I turned back to my friends, and back to the conversation.
Generally, no, although I’ve moved around enough that this has happened to me only a handful of times in my life. I think once or twice I have blurted something out, out of shock, but that’s probably it.
What do you think has the upper hand, not caring about what they’ve been up to, or not wanting to tell them what you’ve been doing?
The former, certainly.
I don’t mind telling people what I’ve been up to if a) I know they won’t be freaked out b) I don’t care if they’re freaked out or not because I don’t care that much about them.
Who were they?????????
I’ll email and let you know.