In the unlooked stillness of the gas station, 

there you were,standing, staring,

a silhouette so familiar yet veiled in the unknown.

 My heart skipped over beats, caught in the web of years spent scrolling through the remnants of your digital footprints. 

Did you recognize me, the child grown from absence into curiosity? 

In that fleeting moment, our shared blood a silent whisper, I tussled with the urge to speak, to bridge the 18 years with a simple 'hello'. 

But uncertainty held my voice prisoner, 

and I was left with the echo of what could have been—

a conversation, a connection, a chance to know the man who is both a stranger 

and half of my very being, 

Technically speaking, though, it was merely a figure—a ghost, a silhouette of a guy who might have been