Both were originally from Texas, he and Catherine; they’d come together before, though previously on foreign soil too.  He thought back to that year, an entire year, they’d spent living together in his tiny apartment, both studying at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin.  She’d been a student of his back then, had come along with him.  They were supposed to return home together.  Though on the morning they were to leave, he’d gone alone, left only with a few words she’d sent in her place; those he’d found particularly cruel.  Haunting really, nothing but “I love you, Goodbye” on the back of a 3x5 note card.  And now, three years later, nothing but another note, and still no way to catch her.

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