Meet Patou Cheval, I did at Starbucks today. But this wasn’t simply meeting someone for the first time, I have known Patou for about 8 years. Not that you could call us friends, our meetings have all been in the realm of chance encounters. Today though, this became downright strange. You see, I first met Patou with her husband, she was pregnant. I was watching my friend Sonal’s Indian grocery when this couple came in and the 3 of us spent some time talking. It is on the rare occasions that Sonal asks me to step in to watch the store for a few hours, or maybe a day. It was again on one of those days that Patou came in with her mom with her newborn daughter.

Some years would pass before on some random day when I was picking up lunch for Caroline that I see Patou in the vitamin shop, where she was working. I stopped to say hi and was quickly off. Again a year or 2 passes and I’m in Whole Foods shopping and guess who is working in the non-foods section? Yep, Patou. I saw here again another couple of times and then a couple of years of nothing. A little more than a year or thereabouts, Caroline and I were leaving Paradise Valley Mall, and guess who should be walking into the mall at the same entry/exit we are using? Right, it was Patou, but this time with her two daughters. We talked a while and said goodbye.

Now here we are a year later and maybe 8 miles from our last chance encounter. I had just sat down to work on my book and over my shoulder, I think I am recognizing someone’s voice – sure enough, it is Patou. We were both astounded and agreed there was something peculiar about how this has now happened nearly half-a-dozen times since our first hello of 8 years ago. Caroline, Patou, and I have sent tentative plans to meet for dinner, how much you want to bet the best-made plans never come to fruition, and 2 years down the road, we’ll run into each other while on vacation in another state?