There was a crack in the pavement

This in and of itself was not the strangest thing in the world. Pavements do that, it is an inherent attribute of the universe; all attempts to order things in a permanent way are bound to fail eventually. Entropy and the passage of time sees to that

This particular spot was special, though. He could still remember when it was newly paved, the paradigmatic image of systematic order. That moment was forever etched into his memory, as he had found the road blocked by a construction crew, and thus had to find another route to his wedding. Which he had been unequivocally late to, for this very reason

A crack in the pavement. Yes, that was exactly what it was, nothing more, nothing less

It had been a long day. It had begun, and then things had just kept on going. Any one of the specific particulars would, if seen in isolation, have been a manageable routine thing that could be dealt with without thought or effort. It was not any one thing that did it, however. It was all of them, accumulated, all at once, all adding to the overall situation, prodding the limits of manageability and then keeping on keeping on

Tomorrow looked to be more of it. Not necessarily the same, but definitely more

As she slumped into an exhausted sit, a very small thing happened. Without preamble, a head buffed her and made it clear that now was a moment of affection. Petting the purring furball, she accepted the situation

It was a heavy day. The weight was not made lighter by the sheer insistence of the world to be bright and sunny; under any other circumstances, this would be the prototypical Fine Day. The weather report promised this inconsistency would continue to be for the duration

He considered buying flowers, but decided not to. They’d do nothing, and the point anyway was to be there. Everything else was optional

He navigated the hospital corridors, then finally found the correct room. As he sat down to begin the wait for her to wake up, he wondered how these things could be both emotionally intense and boring at the same time. It seemed unfair, somehow

The date did not begin well. For one thing, it was raining. For another, one of the very first things to happen was the date frontloading with the entirety of their gender and sexual identities. Any one of those things were fine, but sometime during the litany the sheer totality of it all killed the mood. The whole situation morphed from a date to something more akin to a job interview, where skills and competencies were individually assessed in relation to the task at hand. It was all very professional

The food was nice, though. Definitely a place to return to

Suddenly, a text

“Heya, I’m in town for a spell, mind if I come up?”

No mind. Come right up

And so, there was talking, laughing, reminiscing, the impromptu singing of Regina Spektor songs. The old slow dance when reaching the chorus of Us, remembered only in muscle memory. For the briefest of moments, things were as they had once been, a re-enaction of the ages

Like all moments, this too passed. It brought a smile to the soul nevertheless, a reminder of things past and a promise of things to come