New city, same small town

Still shaky after nine hours of being strapped to my computer screen, I step out of the elevator and start walking toward the parking garage of my building. Digging through my shoulder bag, I open the swinging glass doors with my hips while trying to find my car keys.

After two days in the office, monotony ensues. The walk to the car is already routine and I didn't even need to look where I was going. Finding my keys, I turn the corner and walk toward the structure elevator. Two guys with empty handtrucks are turning the corner as I look up. Eyes lock. I know this face instantly. My brain screens through faces and names, like encriptions in the Matrix, and locks on a certain identity. I stop and stare directly into his face.

"Seth" I announce and he freezes with amazement. "I thought that was you" he replied. Summer camp at Ithaca College were the first images that ran through my head. I never remove my oversized sunglasses. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in New York" The thought was mutual. After attending a college level media camp together, the summer between our junior and senior years of high school, Seth showed up unexpectedly at NYU. We were both sophmores and we had friend in common. I was sitting on my friends extra long twin-sized bed and Seth walked in carrying a C-stand and camera cases.

I helped him with his silent black and white film by agreeing to act in it. At the time, I was interning at a magazine and he was editing a short film that he wrote and funded. I watch one of his final cuts of the film and really didn't like it. Having no obligation to say otherwise, I told him I disliked it and gave him a laundry list of reasons why. I haven't seen or talked to him since.

Now in the lobby of my building, which also happens to be his building, I bump into ghosts past. My past, rewinds times two. Five years of history tied into present in a single moment. This used to happen to me all the time in New York. I'd find people I knew in the most unexpected places: on the subway, in a deli, or on a crowded street.

New to this LA, the people I meet seems to always bring me back to my New York roots. But some days, this new city makes me feel like I've lived my life in the same small town.