He noticed her as soon as she got on the bus in a little town called Destiny in the middle of nowhere. A small-town girl had no business being that stone-cold beautiful, but he supposed that was why she was leaving town.
She took a seat three rows in front of him on the other side, so he could watch her satin hair and occasionally catch her profile when she looked to the right. He thought about striking up a conversation with her, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t take the chance.
They rode that way for hours, three rows apart and never making contact, and when morning came and dawn broke, she stood to get off at a bus station in a medium-sized city hundreds of miles from Destiny.
He thought he saw her square her shoulders to take on the world. In his mind he told her goodbye and wished her luck in her new adventure.
Over the years he waited to see her on a stage or a screen having become a star, and it’s possible he did and never recognized her. After all, he only knew the back of her hair and a glimpse of her profile. Still, he remembered her, and maybe that was enough.