He was returning to his car in the shopping centre’s open carpark when he spotted her.
He last saw her a decade ago. That would have to be around the time his family moved away. He was back now, just visiting for a couple of days. He stood watching her as she opened her boot and began loading it from her trolley. As he looked on, he remembered. He thought about those days. Days close to the end of school. Days of being together. A time when they, as teenagers, talked about the future and what they wanted. He remembered a place. He looked across the carpark to where the trees lined the road. He was surprised at his own hesitancy about making himself known. How could he not say hello? He would regret it.
He approached, calling her name, and she turned.
The meeting went much the way any kind of catch-up of this sort was meant to go. It was about long time no see, and what are you doing now, how’s the family, and whatever happened to what’s-his-name?
After chatting away like this for several minutes, he said, “Look, I’d like to show you something.”
Her eyebrows went up.
He said, “It’s something close by and it literally would only take a couple of minutes.”
She didn’t reply.
He smiled with the smile that he hoped she would remember. “Please?”
She shrugged. “OK. Just a couple of minutes.”
He pointed across the carpark. “It’s not even as far as the road, honestly.”
They began to walk.
Half way across, she asked, “What is this thing you’re keen to show me?”
“It’s an arborglyph?”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll see, any moment now.”
When they reached the spot at the edge of the car parking area, he pointed to one of the trees. “Do you remember that?”
She pulled a face. “No. Not really.”
He stepped to the side of the tree and rested the palm of his hand on the trunk. “Arborglyph,” he repeated. “A carving made on the bark of a tree.”
She stepped forward and stared at the heart. She saw the initials carved inside… their initials.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “We did this long before anybody thought about building a shopping centre on that piece of land.”
She nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said in a dreamy voice, “I remember.”
They stood looking at the tree for a moment.
“Any regrets?” he asked.
“None,” she replied.
“Me neither,” he said, and they walked back to their cars together.