I met her while I was living in a lower latitude. She said she needed a change- a different sort of man, from another part of the continent. I was more than willing to take advantage of her dissatisfaction.
She came North, without complaint, she would say later. It was an honest attempt to move away, she told me, six months or so afterwards. It was when I saw her again- on her turf once more, leaving me as the Sole Expatriate. No, that ain't so, she said- shaking her head, you were never from here, so that doesn't count.
In retrospect I should have known that anybody who talks so much about a town they don't miss, well they are probably needing that someplace bad. Real bad.
This is how she explained it: "You can't help missing it. You know,
people you didn't think you cared about, food you were tired of, the places you didn't think you would miss. Well, you do- you miss all of it "
I didn't understand it then. I do now.
... you left it all behind
you thought you up and gone
all you finally figured out is
how to take the long way
home-
Long way home- Roseanne Cash