Walking across the deserted street, he noticed that the qorn asphalt gave way to cobblestones, well rounded, smooth and brown. He stopped for a moment, the lack of traffic during the midday being surprising but welcomed, he bent over to look at the stones, an exposed street from a time long past. Running his fingers along the smooth tops, feeling the grains of sand in between each stone, his thoughts began to drift, transporting him back well over a hundred years.

His foreman swearing over the din of the steam machinery, he placed another row of stones in line, filling each seam with fine sand, a thin layer of mortar, and checking them for straightness, he stood up, stretching as he did so. His stones straight, as he knew they would be, he took a brief moment and looked around at the construction area. Stationary steam engines with hige belts spinning wildly through the air, powering heavy iron machines for stamping metal for the bridge, groups of men with shovels, pickaxes digging in the hard dirt. It was getting close to lunchtime he thought, looking at the few clusters of well dressed men standing about well past the dusty edges of the site, eating sandwiches, looking proper and warm in their bowler hats and dark suits.

Turning back to pick up more stones, he noticed a flash of green and looked up. A young woman in a bright green dress was watching the workers dig and build. A few of them had also noticed her, and were making catcalls, hooting at her, all of which she ignored. He said nothing, she was to far away regardless, but he he watched her move slowly down the sidewalk, touching the rope barricade carefully, almost as if savoring it, it's coarseness and weight. A simple barrier, really more symbolic than anything. She paused for a moment, seeing him. He made no sign to her, but her eyes stopped, her lips closed, she gripped the rope as if for support.

Kaite, he thought, why did you have to come find me? Two years before, he had given up a partnership in a small law firm, and with it, her father had forbidden her to marry him. He hadn't realized the power her father, a judge, had in the city. All he had been able to find for work was in a labor gang, building roads, odd building jobs. A series of bad choices, he thought, but now, not 50 feet away, she was there, watching him, waiting. He placed his stones down carefully, and started to walk to her, every step measured, heavy and he watched her still, his eyes never leaving hers.

Why had he left, she thought, as he walked towards her. So many questions she had asked herself each day, so many times each night she had lain awake, her eyes moist, wondering if she would ever know the answers to the endless questions she asked herself. Now, she feared, she would find those answers, and he closed the gap between them. Her mind went blank, all the scenarios she ever imagined vanishing, her heart reclaiming that painful yearning she had always felt for him. She knew not what to say, seeing him all covered in dust, his hands rough from working long hours outside, the well groomed gentleman she was once in love with, now in front of her, still radiating the sophistication and charm he always had, shining through his worn clothes.

Standing in front of her, the qeustions he had vanished, the memories of long days in the hot sun as part of a labor gang were replaced by days spent on a lake, his head on her lap, staring at the clouds passing overhead, talking of their future together. Looking at her now, his mind filled with the dreams of a future he knew they could never share. With a slow solemnity, he took her hands in his, the soft fabric of her gloves getting dusty, and he opened his lips to speak.

She shook her head slightly, almost imperceptibly, a sad look in her eyes, and reached her head to his, her eyes closing. His lips met hers, and for a brief instant, the world around them vanished, the past and future melding together. She pulled back, and he released her hands. She looked into his eyes, for what seemed like both an eternity and an instant, and which they both knew was for the final time, and then turned quickly away, walking down the sidewalk, blurring into the crowd.