Walk out to Winter

This morning, I ran into C. at the gym. It was kinda strange because it was 11.30am on a Monday and ordinarily, neither of us would have been there. I'm going into the office at lunchtime these days because the IMF meetings keep me there till midnight. He had taken the day off because his best friend C. was flying off to do a Masters degree overseas.

This, of course, happened minutes after my trainer all of a sudden mentioned to me that he had seen C. in the gym lately. And that in turn happened the morning after I had a dream of C., the first in a long time.

In the dream, I'm sitting at my desk in the office and he suddenly appears in front of me, behind the cubicle partition.

"I'm back," he says cheerfully.

There's a pause. I look up. He's in his usual t-shirt and he's gained weight. I feel a strange mix of relief starting to wash over me and a nervousness that this is too good to be true.

"I've joined Stomp," he adds.

Then he reaches over and holds my hand, just before I wake up.