As it was, I was watching her step. Any sloppy placement might only take her nearer to where I once stood: unknowingly behind the scenes, still pushing towards the fore. It mattered little to me now, but she hadn’t come this far to look back and you were not about to run out of far-fetched ideas.

Whether she saw you as I did: indelibly tinted, remained between us, like time spent unintentionally painting in personality cracks, it was never enough just to seem. She would say I needed to get closer; I would step back. Straightforward complications realise least. If it hadn’t taken me so long to understand that, I might have relied less on memory and more on… well on something that didn’t recall itself before I was ready or even able to judge.

I watched her, as I would myself, for flaws in vision, the myopic reaches of narrow, channel less than is necessary. But when sound dominates, hearing by-stands. I saw nothing in her eyes, which is where we usually look. As for you, I cannot begin yet, until I decide who to remember.

Arriving ahead, with the torrent in sight, I waited for my memories to catch up and imagined what I had just seen. You both appeared slightly blurred at first, but not enough to prevent tomorrow’s focus from clarifying your vagaries of heat haze.

When the crowd settled for being many the horizon tempted no-one except us. As she left the circle I followed. Way behind, like a disoriented self-stalker, it was difficult to keep track. Hampered by coming face to face with her mirage. Impression sent “seeing is believing” out of all magnification. So as I saw you approach her the flood of images in your wake could have drowned the future.