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PERSPECTIVES
BEFORE CARLA ARRIVES the next morning I spend exactly thirteen minutes in bed
convinced that I am getting sick. It takes her exactly six minutes to un-convince me. She
takes my temperature, blood pressure, heart and pulse rates before declaring that I am
simply lovesick.
“Classic symptoms,” she says.
“I’m not in love. I can’t be in love.”
“And why not?”
“What would be the point?” I say, throwing my hands up. “Me in love would be like
being a food critic with no taste buds. It would be like being a color-blind painter. It would
be like—”
“Like skinny-dipping by yourself.”
I have to laugh at that one. “Exactly,” I say. “Pointless.”
“Not pointless,” she says, and looks at me seriously. “Just because you can’t experience
everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything. Besides, doomed love is a
part of life.”
“I’m not in love,” I say again.
“And you’re not sick,” she retorts. “So there’s nothing to worry about.”
*
For the rest of the morning I’m too distracted to read or do homework. Despite Carla’s
reassurances that I’m not getting sick, I find myself paying too close attention to my body
and how it feels. Are my fingertips tingling? Do they usually do that? Why can’t I seem to
catch my breath? How many somersaults can a stomach do before becoming irreparably
knotted? I ask Carla to do an extra check of my vitals, and the results are all normal.
By the afternoon I acknowledge in my head that Carla might be onto something. I
might not be in love, but I’m in like. I’m in serious like. I wander the house aimlessly,
seeing Olly everywhere. I see him in my kitchen making stacks of toast for dinner. I see
him in my living room suffering though Pride and Prejudice with me. I see him in my
bedroom, his black-clad body asleep on my white couch.
And it’s not just Olly that I see. I keep picturing myself floating high above the earth.
From the edge of space I can see the whole world all at once. My eyes don’t have to stop at
a wall or at a door. I can see the beginning and the end of time. I can see infinity from
there.
For the first time in a long time, I want more than I have.