Strangers, again | Jessica Wu

PROMPT: Take your usual way to work or school and imagine two people who don't know each other on that bus/walk/train/carpark/etc who start talking. What do they talk about? Is this the beginning of a longer connection between them or is this the only time they will ever talk? (10 mins + 10 editing)

We all start off as strangers…

And this is another dream that I have. That one day this is the way that someone will talk to me, unplanned and with no malice, no hope, no expectation. It just is.

The strangers of my past or future. Nameless and faceless. Seen once, gone tomorrow. There are the strangers that I hide from; the ones that haunt me when it’s dark and the ground is wet, my footsteps pacing faster skipping home. And there are the strangers that I’m willing to let in, through a rush urged by blood, sweat, and tears. Sometimes they are more dangerous.

Wind turbine

Stranger yet, is the intrigue of someone new there - an intricate puzzle of novelty and secrets entrenched in mystery. This someone who may one day become inexplicably intertwined with your life, your apartment, your coffee habit; or one that coasts on a separate tide and chugs away, forever untouching your island.

Judgement. That’s what we do in determining if this stranger can enter the small arched doorway of our lives. Even smaller and hidden behind, is the doorway into our heads, our minds. What’s physical is not what’s in our heads. And when they can crawl into our heads and burrow themselves into our thoughts, you know that they’ve won. Maybe you let him win. You can’t even picture his face clearly yet, you were but perfect strangers just a few days ago. But you feel his presence, and it’s a dark cloud shrouding your judgement.

And sometimes, our judgements are wrong and they let us down.