Said Claire to Andy

"Everybody has a 'gripping stranger' in their lives, Andy, a stranger who unwittingly possesses a bizare hold over you. Maybe it's the kid in cut-offs who mows your lawn or the woman wearing White Shoulders who stamps your book at the library - a stranger who, if you were to come home and find a message from them on your answering machine saying, 'Drop everything. I love you. Come away with me now to Florida,' you'd follow them.

"Yours is the blonde checkout clerk at Jensen's, isn't it? You've told me about as much. Dag's is probably Elvissa" (Elvissa is Claire's good friend) "-and mine, unfortionately," she comes out of the bathroom, head cocked to one side inserting an earring, "is Tobias. Life is so unfair, Andy. It really is."

Courtesy of Douglas Coupland via 'Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'.