A woman stands frozen in the middle of a covered city centre market. Around her, streams of busy shoppers flow, meandering the obstruction she has become. She is small, and in herself, does not require much negotiation, but the tall, gangly youth who is standing next to her is proving to be more of an issue.
He looks down on his mother, younger than most, more understanding than most, and calls her name gently, touches her arm, wonders what can have caused this pause in her normal bustle. She doesn’t appear to hear him, so entranced is she.
Her eyes are fixed on a man who is similar in age to her, a man who is oblivious to her stare. He is bending down to examine something on a stall in front of him. Suddenly, it’s as though he can sense he is being watched. He straightens up and scans the crowd with a furrowed brow. Across the crowds, their eyes lock.
She has imagined this scenario many times before, has played out in her head what she will say and do. But now that the moment she has conjured up almost daily is here by pure chance, she is paralysed with indecision, and remains frozen to the spot.
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