Short Story: Leaving Memphis by Lauren Birden

Leaving Memphis by Lauren Birden is a short short story I read online in Narrative Magazine.

The narrator is sitting at the bus-stop waiting. She sees a woman who seems to be wanting to talk. She tries to ignore the other woman by pretending to read a novel. But that person still comes and sits down with her. And can't be shaken off. She has a peach scar, like an asterisk on her left cheek. She starts talking about her life expecting the narrator to do the same. So they exchange mean tales about each other's life and family. Then she tells the narrator that they are the same person and expects her to agree.

The reader wants to know more about their lives. Wishes to dwell into the mind of the woman who is thinking about this whole encounter and its effect on her.

It might be a very short story but has many elements for the reader to speculate...