there, there.

Where are you now, he asked. I said here. Here where? he continued to ask. Here here, I said. I’m staying. There there? Yes, here here. Nowhere else, here here, as in here.

That’s amazing, he said. Isn’t this the first time in your life that you’re here, here? Not really, I said, not the first time. Come on, he said. You were always anywhere else but here. You were there here, elsewhere and everywhere else. Well, milord, I said. That is what you think, but I do not think you think right, I said.

I have been in places where I was just there, and I was there. Sure, I have also been in places where I was everywhere else but there, but I was not always there, in those particular places. I have at least once been there, just there, and did not wish to be elsewhere. In fact, it was not at least once. Assigning a number to it just doesn’t make sense, because I have definitely been there at least once, and at least a hundred of times, or even a thousand of times if you would just believe me. I was there, and there alone. And there, I have wished that time stayed frozen. Just there. Freeze. Icicle snowflakes and all, I didn’t mind. Because I had warmth with me. And because when time freezes, movement ceases. There, only there, and really there, forever. With you. Remember?

With me? he asked.

I shrugged. Um. Yeah.

Sort of.

I mean.

I shrugged again.

What time is it there now? he asked. As though it was another fresh beginning of our conversation, a smooth escape from awkwardness. One thirty two, I said. Your tomorrow – I said, trying to impress – is my today. I know that, he said. But you can still try to impress, we said it together out loud, out of habit, and laughed at our togetherness. When our laughs receded, he asked, hey. Can you see the moon? I immediately went to my window and found the moon through my blinds. Found it, I said. That must be the very same moon that you’re looking at now, isn’t it, said I.

Actually, he said. Which planet are you on, again? I – can’t – see any moon from mine.

And so it was. Once upon a time there lived a couple who loved each other so much, so much that they never let their worlds collide. Then at one point, it was not funny anymore.