Lucas In Love

Lucas from Buenos Aires saw a photo online—red hair, freckles, a moment captured by some photographer named Oceanwave and posted on Flickr. He wants to find her. Doesn’t have a name, doesn’t know anything about her except what’s in that image. So he’s asking if anyone knows who she is. He’s asking me to ask you.

There’s something about that kind of desperation that I recognize. You see someone once, maybe in person, maybe just in a photograph, and they lodge in your head. Not because you actually know them, but because of something about how they looked—the way the light hit their face, an expression, the freckles. You don’t know their name, but you can’t stop thinking about them. So you do something that feels humiliating and hopeful at the same time: you ask strangers for help.

I did that once. Posted a message about someone I kept thinking about, basically begging the internet to help me find them. It didn’t work right away. Two years later, they messaged me out of nowhere. Turned out they’d seen the post. We talked a little and then didn’t. The moment had already passed by then.

But I didn’t regret it. And I think Lucas won’t either, whether he finds her or not. You ask. You see what happens. The rest is out of your hands.