Well, I'll be damned if I didn't do it again. Having come to understand that the 10th of March had been significant only in my own mind - that my wife had never said she was coming home on the 10th, and had never intended to do so - the 11th of March proceeded straightaway to burrow into my concept of reality, quite as much without justification or source as had the 10th.
Therefore, I awoke early this morning, alone again in the house, and wondered instantly what could have happened. Something was seriously amiss. Panic crept up.
So I sent a message to my wife. No answer. I called her number. No answer.
Perhaps she had stayed over in a hotel upon arriving in Bali. Or perhaps she and her friends had stayed out very late and were now catching a bite to eat. Or, of course, the plane may have crashed. Or the taxi. Or her friends.
While turning these things over in my head, I somehow missed a return call from my wife. Where was I when the phone rang? I don't know. I was busy thinking.
So I return her return call.
Where are you?
In my hotel room. Just got up.
Your hotel room?
Yes.
But why would you stay in a hotel?
Where else would I stay?
Now, I'm just about to suggest that perhaps her own house would have been appropriate, the one where we live in Bali, twenty minutes or so from the airport, when a little light goes on in my head. Let's call it consciousness.
Umm ... (I don't know how to ask this question without appearing ridiculous). Are you in Sydney?
Well, of course she is in Sydney. That is why she is not here in the house. The reason she is not in Bali is that she is in Sydney. And the reason she didn't come home on the 11th is that she never said she was coming home on the 11th. She has no plane tickets for the 11th. My brain said she was coming home on the 11th. My brain made up its own mind about that. Just as it had with the 10th.
What the hell?
Fake news. Alternate facts.
Therefore, I awoke early this morning, alone again in the house, and wondered instantly what could have happened. Something was seriously amiss. Panic crept up.
So I sent a message to my wife. No answer. I called her number. No answer.
Perhaps she had stayed over in a hotel upon arriving in Bali. Or perhaps she and her friends had stayed out very late and were now catching a bite to eat. Or, of course, the plane may have crashed. Or the taxi. Or her friends.
While turning these things over in my head, I somehow missed a return call from my wife. Where was I when the phone rang? I don't know. I was busy thinking.
So I return her return call.
Where are you?
In my hotel room. Just got up.
Your hotel room?
Yes.
But why would you stay in a hotel?
Where else would I stay?
Now, I'm just about to suggest that perhaps her own house would have been appropriate, the one where we live in Bali, twenty minutes or so from the airport, when a little light goes on in my head. Let's call it consciousness.
Umm ... (I don't know how to ask this question without appearing ridiculous). Are you in Sydney?
Well, of course she is in Sydney. That is why she is not here in the house. The reason she is not in Bali is that she is in Sydney. And the reason she didn't come home on the 11th is that she never said she was coming home on the 11th. She has no plane tickets for the 11th. My brain said she was coming home on the 11th. My brain made up its own mind about that. Just as it had with the 10th.
What the hell?
Fake news. Alternate facts.
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