[Recap]: Then, she noticed the work lanyard hanging over the man’s raincoat, the badge reading: JOHN DOE. Jane couldn’t help but laugh, a small, unexpected sound that felt foreign in the urban silence. She pointed a gloved finger to her own badge, which read: JANE DOE. John gazed at her with slightly furrowed brows, then back at his own name.
The absurd coincidence of their names instantly dissolved the barrier of anonymity between them. They weren’t strangers anymore; they were two sides of the same copper coin, finally face-to-face.
‘You know,’ John said, a weary smile touching his lips, ‘I always wondered who had the other half of this curse.’
‘It’s not a curse,’ Jane corrected, looking past the badge and into his eyes for the first time. ‘It’s a blank slate. Everyone else is trying to live up to a name. We get to choose ours.’
He considered this.
‘So, what are we choosing?’
The rain had stopped, and, in the sudden break, the clouds were swiftly scattered by a high wind tearing through the upper atmosphere. Jane looked up at the inky sky, where stars flickered dimly against the backdrop of a city momentarily frozen in time. Then, her eyes returned to the man standing before her: quiet, familiar, and suddenly vital.
‘Right now,’ she said, shaking her umbrella, then carefully folding it up, ‘we’re choosing to get a coffee. And this time, maybe we’ll try something with milk and two sugars.’
And as they walked away from the crowds, two generic names creating a unique path down the damp, forgotten street, John realised that being a placeholder wasn’t a burden after all; it was a privilege, especially when he had someone to share that experience with.
