The story I’m about to tell happened to me a few days ago.
When I came home a couple of nights ago after a long day of work, I was greeted by my husband who was sitting on the couch in our living room. He got up, smiled and waved at me and said: “hi honey!”
I walked over to him, gave him a quick kiss and set the groceries down on out dining table. “Hi darling, how was your day?” I asked. With the same goofy smile he had on his face before, he sat back down and said that he didn’t do anything interesting. After he was done talking to me, he cocked his head back towards the TV and continued watching some random cooking show. I sighed, started unloading the grocery bag and putting the items away in our fridge.
“Can you cook tonight? I really need a bath right now. My legs hurt so much.”
Adam looked up again. “Yes, of course.” He got up and walked over to the kitchen, standing stoically beside me. I frowned a bit, thinking he was acting weird, but didn’t mention it to him. Last time I tried telling him his behavior was uncanny, he didn’t respond to it well. He just kept asking me “oh, what do you mean?” over and over again. I tried to explain it but gave up after a few attempts because he didn’t seem to get what I meant.
The bath had succeeded at its duty and I felt completely relaxed when I went down the stairs in my soft, baby blue bathrobe. As I entered the kitchen again, I noticed that I didn’t really smell anything yet, which left me wondering what my husband was doing. I looked at his back as he was standing in front of the stovetop, stirring the contents of a pot.
“Adam, whatcha cooking?” I asked playfully. He looked over his shoulder and flashed me a smile.
“Only the best of the best for my darling!”. I smiled and went over to him, wrapping my arms around him from the back and resting my cheek against his shoulder.
“It’s just that I don’t smell any onions or anything yet”, I said before removing my arms from around his waist and peeking inside the pot to see what he was making. A frown appeared on my face once again as I saw that the pot was completely empty. Adam continued moving around a ladle in the empty pot, not seeming to notice that he had not put anything in it yet.
“Adam are you okay?” I asked, worry written all over my face.
“Why of course, dear!” he replied cheerfully. I looked at him straight in the face for a few moments.
“Why don’t you sit down and watch your show, I’ll finish cooking the food.”
He nodded, turned around and walked towards the couch. He bumped into it a few times before finally sitting down on it. My worry was growing bigger but I tried to shrug it off. He must’ve had a busy day at his job as well. But was that actually the reason he was behaving like this? My suspicion grew that something was going on, I just didn’t know how to mention it to him. His mind was obviously in another place. Could he be cheating on me? Was there another woman?
Later that night, after dinner, I called my mother to ask her for advice. She had always liked Adam and I figured she’d be able to be my voice of reason, telling me he wasn’t cheating on me.
“Hello, this is Connie?” I heard her familiar voice say in my ear.
“Hi mom, it’s Lauren”
“Lauren! How are you, how is Adam?”
“That’s what I’m calling about, actually. Adam has been acting so strange tonight. He kept smiling at me but he seemed to be lost in thoughts, he was actually stirring a pot with nothing in it. I mean, that next level, right?”
“Hmmm, weird. Maybe he was just having an off day. You know how busy his job can get.”
“I know, I know… But a little voice in my head says it’s something big. I feel like he might be cheating on me. You know he barely ever talks to me about work, apart from the same few insights he gives me every now and then. I don’t know who he works with. He never mentions any names.”
“Hmmm, weird. Maybe he was just having an off day. You know how busy his job can get.”
I went silent for a few seconds. “Yeah mom, I know, you just said that? Are you okay?”
“Hello, this is Connie?”
I opened my mouth to speak again, but before I was able to, the line disconnected. I tried to dial my mom again, but all I got was the busy tone. Now I was even more puzzled than before. Was my mom acting weird on purpose or did she know more than she let on? Or was her dementia getting worse? She was diagnosed with it a while ago, but it hadn’t been that bad at all. At some point it must start acting up, right? It was almost midnight, so I decided I wouldn’t drive over to her place. She probably was just tired and was already half-asleep when I called her. I would just let her rest and I’d go check on her tomorrow.
The next morning I woke up to the space next to me being empty. Adam was already awake? I rubbed my eyes and quickly did my morning routine before heading downstairs to grab myself a cup of coffee. God knows I needed it. I did not sleep well, I kept worrying about Adam and my mother. Everyone seemed to behave to differently all of a sudden.
Downstairs I was met with the sight of my husband staring at the TV. “Goodmorning”, I said, trying not to sound like I didn’t like what was going on.
“Goodmorning! How did you sleep?” he asked, not looking up from the TV.
I grabbed my cup of coffee and brought it to my lips. After I took a sip, I shrugged and sat down besides him. “Just okay. And you?”
“Like a baby!” he replied. I smiled. That sounded like my Adam. Just as I was about to rest my head on his shoulder, he got up and walked towards the front door, almost like he was on automatic pilot. “Well, off to work I go!” he said, before heading out the door and closing it behind him.
I sat back and blinked a few times in surprise. This was very unusual behavior again. Adam never left without giving me a goodbye kiss, let alone leaving so suddenly and unannounced. Now I was almost sure something was going on. I bolted outside myself and hopped in my car. I felt like I needed to follow him. Something was definitely going on at his work, and I didn’t even know where his work was located.
I followed Adam’s car for quite a while, cruising down the streets and trying to stay back far enough so he wouldn’t notice me driving behind him. But then the thing happened that makes me question reality. Adam passed a road sign, and I was a bit behind him. But when I reached the road sign, my car crashed against an invisible wall. The crash wasn’t too bad, my airbags didn’t pop out or anything, but the front of my car was pretty damaged. I noticed that after I had gotten out of the car and tried to run after Adam’s car but found myself unsuccessful to cross the road sign. I felt like a shitty mime player, not being able to move out of my imaginary box. I placed my hands flat on the ‘wall’ and looked around, wondering what the hell was going on. I was shaken and ordered myself an Uber to get back home.
Once I got home, I just sat on the couch in silence. I had left my car at the road sign. I didn’t care about it at this time. I would call someone or pick it up later. For now, I needed to figure out what was going on. Was there an end to the world? Did I reach it? But why could Adam pass the border? No one else seemed to have trouble passing the road sign. Was there a bug? What a ridiculous idea. I stared at the PS4 that was connected to our TV and shook my head. I had been watching Adam play his games too much.