Simply Coincidence

flash fiction – by Ezra Harker Shaw

Is it getting suspicious? The way that after work Sameera takes almost exactly as long putting her belongings in her handbag and checking her makeup as Kenzo takes collecting his bike from the basement store and putting on his jacket and his helmet, although his tasks should take so much longer, and yet it happens almost every day that they leave work at the same time? 

Is it getting odd? The way Kenzo always checks the delays on the various trains and ums and ahs about which way he should take, although a long time ago he distinctly said that one way was always quicker and yet he pretty much always takes the other way which is the only way Sameera can go? 

Is anyone else watching, and does anyone else care? 

Sameera wonders if Kenzo notices, and, if so, what he thinks. 

And Kenzo wonders the same but vice versa. 

Sometimes she is strict with herself, because she embarrasses herself with all these coincidences she manufactures. She starts packing her bag before the end of the day, so the moment five o’clock hits she is out of there and striding to the station with a miserable turn to her mouth because today there will be no coincidence. 

She will go home alone for once, and she walks with such swampy regret because she loves taking the train home with Kenzo, loves how he talks with her, and laughs shyly at himself, and at the stories about her nephews (he always remembers her nephew’s names and this gives her hope). Sameera loves the way Kenzo’s shy eyes flit behind his rimless glasses and very occasionally look at her, and when they do very occasionally look at her she feels she is actually being witnessed.

But not today. For this evening she will make do with her memories. 

When she gets to the station she finds her normal route is unusable because of a broken-down train, so she shall have to take a different line and three changes and it will take forever to get home. 

She clambers onto the unfamiliar train with great reluctance. The door closes behind her, the train lurches forwards, and as she scans the train for seats, she sees Kenzo standing by a seat with his bike. 

They look at each other in astonishment. They laugh. They each remark that this is not their usual train. Kenzo explains he got out of work early because he has to attend an optometrist appointment and that he still goes to the optometrist where he used to live because he likes the people there. Sameera has no excuse for leaving early, but tells him about the cancelled train, and he offers her a seat and they talk all the way until they both have to get off and take different directions. 

So today there is nothing odd, nothing for anyone to be suspicious about. Sometimes two people spending their lives together is simply coincidence.