As I walked down Old Marylebone Road, a flickering to my right caught my attention. It was the reflection of cars zooming across the glass windows of a building on the reflected road. I stopped and turned to face it. Eyes stared back out at me, watching me with an expressionless face.

….Taxis and vans raced past behind the staring girl. The wind created by the passing vehicles tickled my skin and played with the jacket of the girl in the glass. Footsteps approached from the left and faded away on the right. People walked past the girl in the glass, only seeing what was in front of them: pavement or a smartphone, or the girl standing in their way.

….A life parallel to the one I lived flickered in this glass, like a movie. But it was real. I tucked some hair behind my ear and the girl opposite did the same. In a minute this girl would be out of my view, going about with her life on the other side of the glass and the building.

….She walked with me now, ready to continue her day just as I was. When I passed the building and turned back, she was gone, just as I predicted. But the cars and buses kept on racing, back and forth down the road.