HAS BEEN PASSING

A man with long golden hair, ran past me turning, slowed down, said, ‘It is you, I thought it was.’
‘It is,’ I said, thinking, ‘He going to stop?’
‘How are you?’ he said.
‘Okay,’ wary. ‘You?’
‘Yes,’ he said walking backwards in front of me.
‘You working?’ taking some control.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘at a call centre, on a smoking helpline,’ he said.
‘People phone say, “I need help smoking”?’ I said.
‘It’s NHS Direct,’ he said. ‘Thing is I live just round the corner,’ pointing, ‘that road there,’ I didn’t look where he pointed because I knew the road he meant. ‘I saw you,' he said. 'Thought it was you.’
‘Okay,’ I said, waited long enough then said, ‘See you around.’
I watched him run off, sure the man I’d blanked a few weeks ago not far from here, as even then I’d thought, had been him.