The Hug

I was driving back to work after lunch, following a line of slow moving cars. They never observe the speed limit on Buffalo Road. Today, someone was turning left and there was no way around the vehicle. The oncoming traffic was never ending.

I glanced towards Rohrbachs Restaurant, idly watching two people saunter towards their car. They stopped, turned towards each other, and wordlessly embraced. Immediately I realized this was no normal "see you later" kind of hug. Nor was it wildly passionate. I could not tell whether the huggers were brother and sister, colleagues, friends, or lovers. Only that they stayed locked in their embrace for a long moment, he gazing upwards with closed eyes, his face filled with sadness; she with her face buried in his chest, chin tucked, hair covering her visage.

They stood there for what seemed an eternity, not moving, not speaking, not breathing. They story they told was one of inevitable yet unwilling parting for some undetermined length of time. It was as if neither one could bring themselves to pull away, to start the countdown. They just stood frozen in each others' arms.

And then, the car turned, traffic cleared up and I had to drive on, leaving the pathos behind yet somehow strangely affected by their pain.