Chapter 18: Ghost of a GirlAlone, a girl walks through the bustling crowd. Friday night, and some strange impulse drives her off the bus several stops early. Storefronts gleam in the night, lumi auras seeping lurid glows across pavement. The air is warm but cooling with the encroag darkness, and most are dressed, like her, for the day’s earlier heat. She hesitates outside a restaurant. She sees herself in the gss, a ghost of a girl—slim, blonde hair, short skirt—trapped, suspended in refle in the window; outside, gazing in. The f k of cutlery, murmur of versation, and of musivelopes her as a trio of patrons leave the restaurant, cut off abruptly as the door closes.

  A couple: young man, broad-chested in a white shirt, tie loose and cuffs rolled back, gesticutes with a fork, a pieeat impaled on its tines. Opposite, a woman listens with a hint of a smile. Her eyes sparkle as she raises a gss to glossy lips. The man mirrors her, reag for his wine. The woman’s gaze dances away, down but then flitting aside, looking outside, and there notices the girl watg through the refle in the window. They make eye tabsp; The woman raises an inquisitive eyebrow. The girl outside feels a sudden, nearly overwhelming yearning; heart pounding, she scurries away.

  Pools of itent light dropping from streetmps see her home as she walks the several remaining kilometers, alone, back to her empty apartment.

  Author's Notes:

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