sitting at a caf and staring wordlessly out at the rainy sidewalk as the person sitting across the table did the same ; playing childish games in the classroom when the teachers back was turned ; standing in front of the guests at his wedding feast and holding the warm , yet delicate hand of his smiling wife to the applause of family and friends and thinking that , maybejust maybethis could have been the happiest day of his life and that no imminent joy could ever surpass this feeling ; slouching on the sidelines during a football match as he complained to his other uncoordinated teammates about how infrequently he played ; buying bread at a bakerythat same shop he went to three times a week , if only to get a glimpse of the sweet , giggling shopkeepers daughter whose name he would never learn and to share that brief , but painful moment when their eyes met , though neither of them , in their shyness , could break the glorious silence , neither could quash its beauty by speaking , until finally , it was time to break that gaze before the madness would overcome him and he , in his desperation , would be forced either to proclaim his undying affections for her , or to kill himself on the spot : he had once been so unmistakably intertwined with all these scenes , which were so fresh , so clear in their own time that they might have transpired mere seconds ago .