Walking with ghosts
We strolled (read: huffed and puffed) up the Filbert Steps to Telegraph Hill to get a broad view of the bay and from there traversed familiar paths, familiar sites, familiar smells and yet most of the memories floated in the air like ghosts without any concrete emotion to pull them down to earth – Washington Square park, Coit Liquors, Columbus Avenue, raspberry rings in the window of Mara’s, negotiating Stockton at peak shopping time, Union Square then a Cosmopolitan in the Rotunda – little girl all grown up.