For seemingly as long as I had known the man the two of us busied ourselves with the watching of people. Both A----- and I would stare for hours through the lone window of the home we shared in that age old city. We would remark upon the gait of one man, the queer dress of another. For hours we would indulge ourselves the pleasure of speculation towards the mindset and character of passerbys.
The thoroughfare outside our window would never fail to engross us in thought. The mien of a character would so thoroughly engage us that we rarely left our seats near the window in those early days of our acquaintance. I now suppose that such an earnest interest was derived from our curiosity towards the lives of others.
It could be said that no man lives in the same world as another. So much of what makes up our conception of life is biased because of our very singular lifestyles. For example, few other people share the same family or friends as another. And of those people, even fewer share the same relationships with these people. Is it untrue to say that there is not a being who's shared every experience with another person? This fact we found fascinating.
In retrospect we never articulated these things, but I do assume that A----- would agree with me in this.
It was during such a day that my roommate and companion spoke with a glimmer of something in his eyes that I had yet to name.
"Suppose... suppose for a moment that a person could have all of the memories of another man. Suppose that I could know all that you know. That for even a fleeting moment, I was you in mind, if not body!"
The rain outside battered the pavement and the never ending throng of faces passed by a bit more hastily.
I replied,"That would be a... profound experience."
"Profound! Yes very! It would be mesmerizing! No earthly drug would rival such an experience."
As I sat at the window I stared emptily in thought at the scene before me. Daylight was slowly giving way to blackness and each of the faces was beginning to retreat behind the pall of darkness.
"Yes," I said amiably, "if only such a thing was feasible."
