Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

Story time. This happened about 30 minutes ago. Uncanny, it was, in the direct sense of the word. I call it... /1

So, I've had a lot of things to think about lately. Some I've talked about, others I haven't. My life has improved drastically, but there's still a lot of need for contemplation. So, I walk. I walk through neighbourhoods, up and down streets. It doesn't cost anything. /2

It's ten degrees today in Stuttgart, but there's not a cloud in the sky. The air is crisp, with a slight haze if you glance across the 'kessel', or cauldron, that the city lies in.

Due to the cauldron, the sun's light also slants in such a way that everything seems golden. /3

If I had to remember Stuttgart - when I *did* recall Stuttgart when I was away for five years - this is how I chose to remember it.

Stuttgart, eternally autumn, bathed in a golden light. Cheesy, but hey, we do what what we can to bring us joy. /4

So today has been... odd to begin with. I've been smiled at more than a few times today - warm smiles.

If you know anything about Stuttgarters, about Swabians, then you know they don't do smiles.

Hey, I know lifelong neighbours who don't know each other's first names. /5

So I'm walking up the street, away from Marienplatz, close to where I first lived in Stuttgart.

I'd been taking pictures all day, and wanted to sneak a few more in before the light changed.

I'm approaching an intersection when I see a young woman approach me. /6

She's the kind of twentysomething German girl who is all tweed, spectacles, angles. Attractive, but in a clearly unconventional way. A little bit 'Ghost World', a little bit 'Sprockets', a little bit of a waif thing going on.

She was extremely *present* if you get me. /7

She sees me, and she breaks into one of these genuine warm smiles - maybe with a touch of shyness.

She approaches me as we pass and waving her hand across her face, she says clearly, in German.

'Surely you've already recognized me.'

I'm taken aback. I squint. /8

'Sorry?'

'Surely you've already recognized me.'

Now, she's not talking Swabian dialect, she's speaking Hochdeutsch - High German. I'm not mistaking her asking me for a smoke.

A bit flustered, I say 'No. No. Sorry'.

At this, she smiles again, and walks on. /9

I do a double-take, then keep on walking. I'm deeply puzzled.

Then, a little further, around the corner, I'm struck by the distinct sensation I *did* know who she was, on a fundamental level.

It's also that feeling when you cannot, for the life of you, articulate it. /10

It's like tip-of-the-tongue stuff. Intense frustration.

I actually stopped for a moment, scratching the side of my head.

I mean, it was *overwhelming* and *infuriating*. /11

As soon as it came, it went. I was actually pretty floored by it all.

I walked back down the hill, and went and got a coffee. I'm in the cafe now. /12

Just for a little bit of Halloween spookiness, we did exchange words outside one of the city's cemeteries.

Lovely place. One of my favourites. /13

Now I'm half expecting for everything to 'derezz', or slowly fade to grey, and find myself a much older, folorn version of myself frustrated at my inability to recognize her *again*. /14

Or maybe I'll tell a friend about her, and he'll tell me she's been doing it since 1923, when she was hit by a milk cart coming home.

Her friends remembered her as the friendliest of the lot, and it turns out that death was no barrier to that. /15

Or maybe this is where I end up, placed here for an eternity or two, somewhere I loved, until the servers are a little more balanced and I can join my loved ones. /16

It was an *uncanny* experience.

Now, I may be off my face on/adjusting to Ritalin, and I may be the sort who is laughably susceptible to suggestion.

I acknowledge that.

However, I'm still a bit rattled. /17

Who knows. The light's fading here and I should go home. /FIN

Now, in homage to the greatest episode of 'Black Mirror' ever, this is where the song drops in.

WHATS IT ALL MEAN?