Perfect strangers

The mystery friend

You know that person from elementary school, whose name you can't remember and really in fact you don't remember knowing them at all, but you seem to run into them every now and again?

Today I ran into that person. This has been going on since 7th grade. I see this girl and she totally remembers me and I guess we used to be really good friends in like 1st grade. She identifies all my correct likes from when we were 5, remembers my parents' and siblings' names but for the life of me I do not have even the faintest idea who she is. I saw her again as a freshman in high school. I'd since moved into another school system but we saw each other at the hometown drug store. Again she asks me about everything; tells me what she's up to; again no clue who she is except that she ran into me in 7th grade.

I feel kind of bad that I have no clue. Someone who seemed to be so close to me and not even one memory. And I'm usually really good at remembering these things! I can remember my 3 best friends from nursery school, my teachers from all 12 years of grade school, but I can't figure out who this chick is. It's like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or something. The last time I saw her, which was about 2 years ago, I made myself promise to remember her name.

I spoke to my parents last weekend, and they had run into this girl. And now I know I'm losing it because they remember her, and told me the update -- she's married, still lives in our town, works as a graphic designer, blah blah blah. They had also given her my number. She was coming into the city and when she found out I lived here wanted to see if I wanted to hang out. Oh man. The pressure.

I figured she wouldn't call me because people don't follow through on vague promises like that, but sure enough when I got home from work there was a message from this girl, E. And much to my own shock, I called her back. I certainly don't want to be rude. We chatted for a couple minutes about our lives, then made plans to meet for lunch on Thursday. I'm kinda excited about it. It'll be like meeting a friend all over again.