SHORT STORY text by ANNA DUBOSC artwork by SIRO CUGUSI We knew each other somewhat, from here and there. We frequented the same places. We had probably spoken once or twice and then avoided each other, as if we had declared a mutual dislike, though we could easily have come to the opposite decision. There was nothing more to any of this. That’s how encounters were at the time. They were there at hand for you to tap into. You could set them in motion or not, believe in them or not. At 30, I’d lost my taste for partying and stopped going out. I was 35 when our paths crossed again. It happened one evening at the Max Linder cinema. I was alone and waiting in the lobby for the theater to open. Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and it was him. I was surprised….