Page 109 of Alone With You in the Ether

He can believe whatever he wants; she knows it’s a perfect circle.

Okay, but still. Say he accepts her premise—what does that actually mean?

(Triumphantly:) It means that they, as they are right now, could be theirfuture selves’ pasts.

(A pause.)

He is beyond lost.

Okay, look. She’s trying to say that maybe an older version of them hasalreadyturned a corner, and so they met again in the armory of the Art Institute, knowing but not knowing that the moment they met was something they’ve done before. Does that make sense?

(He makes a humming sound, like, Maybe.) How many times?

What?

How many times have they done this before?

She can’t possibly know that, Aldo, and besides, that’s not the point. The point is, maybe it works or maybe it doesn’t, but they just keep trying and doing it over until it does. Right?

That sounds like a lot of uncertainty.

Of course it is!Everythingis uncertain, he and she both know that by now, but there is a smaller certainty within all of the uncertainty, which is: The Truth.

And what, he asks, is The Truth?

That she will keep turning corners until she finds him.

(He is quiet for a moment before he says:) Okay.

Okay what?

Okay, he accepts her premise.

And?

And what?

And how does he feel about it?

He’s glad she said it. She explained it better than he could have. He would have tried to graph it.

As a reminder: if he graphs it, it’ll just be a perfect circle.

Cycle.

It’s a circle, Aldo.

Okay fine, she’s poked enough holes in his theories for one day, he accepts.

He concedes, just like that?

Heaccepts, yes. Just like that.

Okay good, she’s too tired to keep explaining anyway. It’s been a long day.

Has it? For him, too. Oh and he saw her art, by the way.

What did he think?

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