Feeling a touch masochistic, Jaina walks about a mile, and finds herself standing across the street from a diner, in the same spot she stood a year ago.
There's not a single thing out of the ordinary. No evidence of the damage that happened here. No reminders of the two people who died here.
Life goes on.
Jaina crosses the street and stands on the sidewalk where the taxi crashed. There was nothing here. No feeling of certainty, and no sense of inevitability. There was someone here though.
Through the large window, was a small child of maybe five, sitting at a booth eating night-time pancakes across from his mother. She didn't even notice him until he tapped on the glass.
He waved at her with a bright smile, and she waved back at him with the best smile she could muster.
Encouraged, the little five year old pushed his face into the glass, puffed out his cheeks, and exhaled a big, slobbery blowfish.
That made Jaina truly smile. To show her gratitude, she knelt down to his level, put her face to the glass, and puffed out a slobbery blowfish of her own.
She completely made that child's day, and she walked on.
------
When Jaina got to the alley, she had to stop.
"Please, no." she whispered at the feeling when it came over her. "Please not now."
She stepped into the dark alley and found a man sitting behind the diner, hidden from the street by shadows and dumpsters.
This is where she needed to be.
The man reeked of booze and piss, but she took a seat beside him, and they shared the silence together.
With tears staining his face, and without turning his head to acknowledge her arrival, he simply said:
![[Image: WsnUaha.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/WsnUaha.jpg)