He was a lot older than me. It was someone from online, and the context of said meeting is maybe not for this forum; you just need to know it was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, that his wife wasn’t around, was maybe not living there anymore, was maybe out of town. This was before, when we could go wherever we wanted, when the idea of social distancing was something that you did to get away, not a way of life.
I was 26 then. I’m 26 now.
I had been to this area before, I had friends in high school who lived near him, but never in this context. Before it was a place we went to trick or treat, because the people who lived in this area had the money for the good candy, because the streets were bright. If he was living there not ten years ago he’d have given me a full sized Snickers, me dressed as whatever the fuck costume I wore that year, a cat or a cheerleader or a zombie. My friend Heather lived nearby, her parents probably still in the same house I slept over at. I drove past it on the way to see him.