Utterly Unrecognized

Booth four. Jessica slid into the vinyl as if it were her due. She placed the sunglasses beside the water glass with ceremonial precision. Her phone lit her face the way a campfire lights a storyteller’s, an unnatural glow in the broad daylight of the diner. She didn’t look at Chloe. To Jessica, the waitress was a choreography: feet appearing with coffee, a hand placing silverware, a voice asking “Anything else?” The strange power in being invisible pressed warm against Chloe’s chest. She could stand here for a long minute and take in the living proof that people change and also don’t.