"hello" he said in his gravely voice. she looked up from her magazine to see a stranger standing before her. he was completely unremarkable in every way. he had the kind of face you could see every day and forget it in an instant. but there was some other quality that made her remember him- a presence. she remembered- no matter how hard she tried to forget- the way he felt, standing next to her.
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he was wearing a pair of jeans ragged from wear, slightly to small. he had a t-shirt that read "south florida all stars, 1976" that had three small holes in the bottom. his hair was brown and wavy. he had gray eyes surrounded by deep black circles from lack of sleep,  and a small, thin mouth. he had an equally unremarkable nose, not protruding excessively or leaning, suspiciously, to one side. his face was thin and he looked underfed. he looked slightly perturbed, as though he were waiting for someone to late to show up. this is the wa he would look every time she woke up just to see him watching out the door.
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she aspired to normalcy- she envisioned a home in the suburbs, 2 or 3 perfect children, high pressure office job, and all the other trappings of a successful late 20th century family. he, on the other hand, cared little for being normal. he was very conspicuous, walking around town, as being slightly out of place although he looked like everyone else. he had a certain manner that gave him away.
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she could remember when he first met her parents. she made him dress up, which meant a pair of new dockers and a button-down shirt. he looked so uncomfortable in these unfamiliar clothes. she drove them over to her parent's house. immedialty, he could tell where she got her standards of a perfect family,  situated in a large, anonymous suburb, a small gray house with average architecture and average landscaping. a small sedan and a sports utility vehicle in the driveway. perfect towels in the bathroom, perfectly arranged furniture around the obvious centerpiece- the television. he had broken every television she had tried to buy for them.
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her words echoed in his brain the whole night. "don't make a scene", she had said right as he was slipping his right arm into his coat. he sat on the couch, trying to avoid small talk, and smiling pleasantly when anyone approached him. "dinner's ready" her mother said with a fake smile, the exact same smile she had used when she sad that everyday for the last 40 years. he moved from the couch to the table, seeming not to move at all. he asked for a glass of water and sipped it quietly. he refused all the food they offered, until she nudged him and said "remember what i said" through her teeth. he took the food and ate it slowly, looking completely unaware that he was eating at all. he answered all questions with a soft "yes" or "no", and seemed relived when they finally climbed into their car and drove home.
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she knew her parents didn't like him, the way they acted betrayed them although they would never admit it. the slight pause, the look in their eyes- she could see, it was there below the surface, unable to be said.
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truly, when it was over, she didn't have much to say about him. when he left in the mornings, presumably for work, she had no clue where he went. his past was a complete mystery. once, out of desperation, she hired a detective to find about him, but when he asked for a full name, she honestly couldn't remember it.
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i ended how it began. she was upset, crying, throwing things. he seemed unaffected. he didn't even blink as the fine china shattered against the wall. he walked out and disappeared into the night.
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she moved back into her parent's house. she would cry, a lot. eventually, she met a nice boy, a lawyer or doctor or some other high-paying profession. he wanted the same things she did, and she was glad when he proposed, in a completely average way. it just seemed like the thing to do. when their relationship inevitably and slowly deteriorated, she kept up appearances well. eventually, she gave him the divorce as soon as the kids went off to college.
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she was now 45, single, the kids driven away by deepening emotional rifts. despondent, she turned to drugs. alcohol had always been a vice, and she moved from there on to harder things. cocaine, mostly, and also a wide range of others. she only stopped when they found the brain tumor, but of course then they provided all the painkillers she wanted.
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when he showed up in her room one morning, it was like he had never left. he calmly removed her iv., and she got dressed. they walked out of the hospital, caring little for the consequences. it was cold, and windy, making it feel like they were in the arctic. so they took a plane to mexico. she was almost able to forget she was dying, but it caught up with her. she died in her sleep, happier than she had ever been in her life. when he found her, he walked outside, and cried for the first time in his life.
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