Neil San Francisco — 1983 Meeting at Mike’s

Neil leaves Bert’s at 5:00 am, about an hour before dawn. Huck is squawking noisily on his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a lithe dark figure ascending the stairway of Mike’s Pawn shop, two doors down. It is Aidan.

Huck swoops upward, a shimmering black swirl of iridescence, a feathered spire of solid smoke. When he is just a dot in the heavens he dives toward Aidan’s back. Grabbing a strand of black hair off Aidan’s collar, he soars skyward with a caw of triumph.

Aidan rounds, a hiss escaping his full lips, faster than thought, his arm shoots toward the rising shadow, but Huck is already gone, circling higher and higher up, up, up into the sky, a rising comet.

Neil’s clear sky-blue eyes meet Aidan’s deep, sea-bottom blue ones. A flash of recognition, a déjà vu, passes between them. Memories of lives not lived, paths not taken, connect them for a moment across an unknown universe. Then, Aidan turns, disappearing into the harsh brightness of the rising sun.