From 2022 to 2025, before I moved to Brooklyn, I saw Dahlia on the SIM3C express bus from Staten Island to Manhattan seventeen times.

1. Oh my god.

2. Oh my god! Again!

3. I’m so happy we have this.

4. Still good, yes, everyone’s good, thanks.

5. Only a few people still from high school, like, I don’t know, do you remember Lana? We hang out sometimes. But everyone seems to have gone all over. It’s like we spend our whole lives up to a certain point building ourselves piece by piece, and then the pieces get scattered all over. A piece in Colorado. A piece in the Bronx. A piece on Zoom. 

6. I’m looking for another job.

7. Getting off in midtown this time, going to an interview.

8. Which interview? I don’t even remember. I think I bombed them all, honestly.

9. They don’t really know what happened to him. He got really sick and—I don’t know. They wouldn’t let anyone in to see him. I don’t know. Thank you. Yeah. There’s just not much else to say, except that I don’t know.

10. This ring? Oh, thank you. It’s a cat toy, actually. In case I happen to see a cat. 

11. A little better. It’s different than I thought it would feel. I thought all the memories would hurt– and well, I guess they do, but I thought the hurting would be bad. Like a terrible painful feeling every time. But actually, I like the hurt. Not in a weird way. It’s just like, it’s nice to remember, and to care, and if someone is making you feel something so strongly, even if it’s painful, it’s kind of like they’re still alive. They’re alive enough to give you real, present feelings.

12. No, still at the job. It’s not too bad. Might go back to school, though.

13. Hey, do you remember when we got wasted at that sweet sixteen and you fell asleep at the table? And we got called to light a candle, so I had to shake you awake? Whenever I think about it, I can still see your face. Hysterical. Like you came off anesthesia. We were such morons. And I tripped during Cotton-Eyed Joe and went flying, Jesus, I almost forgot about that.

14. Better for sure, yeah. But I don’t think it’ll ever really go away.

15. Did you ever consider getting your MFA? I would’ve if I hadn’t had such a terrible experience in college. Oh, shit, environmental science? I didn’t know that about you. I didn’t even realize. Wait, tell me more about you, what you’ve been up to. It’s so easy to forget you’re not the same person from however many years ago. I guess you might do that to me, too, though. In your head, when you think of me, do I still have pink hair and terrible eyeliner? Sometimes when I think of you, you still have those big hoop earrings you always used to wear.

16. Sorry, I’m not very enthusiastic today. My brain is in a weird place, I guess. Some days I think about everyone and everything and that’s a lot to hold in my head, you know? Well, like, later for example, I’ll put the key in my front door and turn it and step into the foyer, as usual, and then suddenly I get this flash of what life would have been like if things went another way. Different place, different apartment, or the same with different furniture, different people in it. And then for the rest of the day, I feel like I’m one foot in this world, one foot in that one. Because I’d be both feet in that one, honestly, if I could be. If it was real.

17. I think I’m going to cut my hair soon. A big chop. God, I’m glad we have this.

18. At this point, I’ll just say see you next time!

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Julia Corrado is a writer, editor, researcher, and tree hugger. She was born and raised in Staten Island and currently resides in Brooklyn.