I buy two bottles of soda water at the corner bottle shop on the way home. "You want bag ?" she asks, just like all the other times, smiling behind her glasses and her east-European (as far as I can guess) accent. Should I say goodbye to these people ? It's been 5 years. Half a decade. Soon I'll be gone. Will they remember me, the way the lady in the Thai restaurant always seems to ? She'd say my name just as I'd finish my order over the phone, even though it was only once every few months that I'd call this particular place. It's not like I've been overly friendly to any of these people, but I suppose I was never unfriendly. I'd always wonder what was going on in their lives, beyond small talk about the weather, but could never bring myself to ask - a little voice would always say "Don't make any trouble. You don't need to know." And so I never did. It's too late now, but there's always the next suburb.