first week in london
i read something about cities being different for everyone, the urban experience an infinite theatre set, choose-your-own-adventure, no two journeys the same. there’s still a certain universality about a city, though, and for london i think it’s something in the way everyone’s hair is blown askew, packed like sardines in the tube, whipping each other’s faces, unable to hear anyone or anything above the deafening roar that carries you like a bullet through dark tunnels to places you know and places you don’t.
my first week in the city i meet a wonderful new friend. she is doing handstands in the park and i want to join her. i introduce myself and moments in she’s asking if i want to get a coffee, her favourite place is just around the corner, and i say yes of course. as we walk she tells me my name is lovely and sounds irish, and we talk about flatmates and guys as flatmates, and i’m giddy and radiant because she understands perfectly. she’s an actress, irish but grew up in spain, moved to london decade ago for drama school. she rolls a cigarette in the sun as her green baseball cap shades her freckles. we stay on her blanket in the grass until my bladder starts to scream. she walks me home and hugs when we part.
sad to say i never see her again.
i call my mother, standing huddled next to the bins that belong to the pub at the end of my street. it's as far as its wifi signal reaches and passersby shoot me dirty stares.
she reminds me i felt the same way about montreal in the first months. i had forgotten; i don’t keep emotions in my memory very well. i only recall routes and locations and specific nights with certain people and i can bring into mind the lighting of the common room where andrew and i studied together for HIST224 and the smell of his shampoo and playing Someone Like You for the finale of the talent show, and i remember yan coming to my room sometimes and decorating spencer’s room with balloons and if i try hard enough i taste some remnants of annoyance at my roommate and some jealousy of other people and a hatred of choir rehearsal monday and wednesday mornings.
i guess none of that matters anymore, and all the details are lost to time anyway.