A parable

(Listening to: Poe, Haunted)

(The second half of "Take Two" is coming tomorrow.)

While driving through town, a man happens to glance at a restaurant. Through the window, he sees one of the employees -- a waitress. He's taken aback, because -- from a distance -- she looks like a girl he used to know, a long time ago.

Over the course of several months, he often drives past this place, and usually spots the same waitress. He thinks about that Girl From the Old Days -- he feels sad. That situation ended badly for the man.

But he sees this waitress, who looks like her. He wonders what she's like. If she's like the Old Girl.

He keeps driving by. He sees the New Girl. He thinks about stopping by the restaurant. To talk to her. He knows it's a shitty way to start a conversation -- "Hey, you know, you look just like someone I used to know..." -- but it could work.

Then, one day, he decides -- "To hell with it." During the afternoon, when he's often seen the waitress working, he arrives at the restaurant, ready to find out everything he can about this New Girl, who looks like the Old Girl from a distance.

But when he walks inside, he sees that there's a very good reason that the New Girl looks -- from a distance -- like the Old Girl.

She is the Old Girl.

The resulting conversation is awkward.

Moral: The world is too fucking small.

And your past clings to you like your shadow. Good luck getting it off.