Winter Solstice

“I really wanna do that next year. Don’t you?"

“Do what? I wasn’t watching.”

“Oh, my god. Put the phone down and join us up here in the real world, will ya?!”

"Right…right. You mean the real world on the TV? You want me to trade this little screen for the big one, like that’s gonna magically bring me into the real world?

"Like I’m gonna be so much closer to reality by watching a reality show on TV or, better yet, watching the fucking news? I’ll all of a sudden be hyper-engaged and “in the moment” if I look up instead of down, look at YouTube TV instead of YouTube on my phone?

"I’m more here than you are. Waaaay more. More fucking here, more fucking days and hours and minutes than you have ever been for 11 years!

"Who do you think was goddam here when Tristan learned how to ride his bike? Who the hell do you think washed and dried and cooked and cleaned and scrubbed and mowed the goddam grass while you sat on your ass at the office all day every single day and didn’t come home until everybody else was already in bed?

"Hmmm?

"I’ve had enough of this shit! I’m not interested in the news, or whatever the hell this is…some reality show? What is this? It looks like some bullshit about ancient pillars out in the middle of the desert in the middle of friggin’ nowhere and a bunch of freaks praying to the sun or some shit.

"I'm not interested in that! What the hell even is this?

"And watching this is supposed to make me wanna be more engaged? To feel like...like...like I’m all involved and in the here and now and all that?

"Well…it doesn’t make me feel like that. It makes me feel like you’re watching this when we could have been talking since you got home. We could have cooked the dinner together, we could have gone out to dinner.

“Oh, honey, you look like you’ve had a long day, maybe we should just go out and have dinner somewhere so you don’t have to stand on your feet, which you’ve been doing ALL. DAMN. DAY.

"Maybe tomorrow I’ll take a day off and we can take Tristan to the zoo, and maybe get an ice cream or maybe we could take Tristan to day care and go spend the day somewhere together. Alone. Just the two of us.

"Did any of that occur to you? Did you ever once think about that? Any of it? Did you? Look at me! Who’s absent from the real world now, huh?"

“Uh…”

“Yes?”

“Uh…well…I was kinda wondering if you wanted to go to Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice next year, maybe?"

"Oh my god! That's it. I'm outta here, goddammit! You didn't hear one single thing I said!"

"What? Wait! Hey, wait a minute! Where are you going? Oh, don’t do that. Oh, come on! Stop! Get out of the car! Don’t do that!

"Oh my god. Jesus. Fuck.

"Well, there he goes, Roi-Tan. Dammit. What the hell am I gonna do about dinner? Did he even feed you?

"Shit."