I wake up to another beautiful morning listening to the cardinals and doves singing outside my window, next to my beautiful wife. Chuckling, I notice that she’s wearing thick rimmed spectacles and realize she must have fallen asleep in them. Carefully, I remove them from her face and place them gently on the nightstand.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world”, I think to myself as I pull back the red and white comforter of my bed to get my day started.
In the bathroom brushing my teeth, I look in the mirror and have a hard time recognizing my reflection. Odd, as I just had my vision tested, 20/20 in fact, but I guess this is just part of getting older. I lean over and pick up a pair of thick rimmed glasses and place them on my face and the world immediately comes into focus.
I lean down to spit and realize I must have brushed too hard as the toothpaste has just the tiniest bit of blood mixed in.
“You old geezer, you’re just falling apart,”, I think to myself as I clean the sink and place my red toothbrush next to my wife’s eggshell one.
Quietly heading back into the bedroom, I find my wife still asleep. However, I pause when I notice the thick rimmed glasses have somehow made it back to her face.
Odd.
Again, I remove the glasses and set them next to the nightstand, when something catches my eye. A photo of us in our bedroom that I had taken just a few months ago. In it, my wife is laying her head on my chest, without her glasses, on the blue comforter of our bed.
A blue comforter?
I don’t remember discussing changing the bedding, or shopping, or even changing it out.
I can feel my chest start to tighten. Until, just as quickly as the panic arrived, it evaporates without a trace, and I can’t help but laugh at myself for getting so worked up about something so silly. What was even the problem here?
Setting down the photo of my bespectacled wife cuddling on my chest on our candy cane bedspread, I head to my closet. I start to shift through my shirts, knowing that today of all days I need to make my best impression. I’ll be presenting to the partners, and if everything goes off without a hitch, I can finally get myself that promotion.
I rustle through the various suit jackets, collared shirts, and fashionable henleys, but nothing is right. A hundred outfits and nothing to wear! Until finally, I reach in instinctually and pull out the perfect outfit: a pair of simple blue jeans and a scarlet and ivory sweater.
Hurrying to get dressed while not waking my beloved, I softly push up her beanie and kiss her forehead before rushing out the door and getting into my car.
I run over my presentation over and over on the drive. This must go off without a hitch. I become so hyper focused on my speech; I don’t even realize how empty it is outside.
While previously I was worried about running late, the streets seem to be absolutely clear on my side of the road. Not only that, but I seem to be flying through every single light. Each red light turns to white as I drive through!
Everything is just going so well! I should reward myself!
I turn the wheel hard and start heading to the beach. Who needs to be in the office when it’s such a beautiful day outside anyway?!
Parking the car, I reach in the back to grab my white and cherry beach towel and rush out to the beach. I don’t want to be late!
On the beach, everyone is mingling and laughing. Mike from down the street in his old timey achromic and cerise bathing suit is talking to the partners at my work. Damn, isn’t Mike the best?
I hear my name being called and turn to see my wife running up to me in her glasses and beanie.
“You made it!”, she says as she wraps her arms around me.
I did make it!
For what?
Why did I come here?
Why is everyone here?
The whole town has come to the beach today and for what? The partners are even here talking to Mike, but do they even know each other? And where the fuck did I get this red and white-
Oh God no.
He’s here. You never think he’ll come to your town. After all, it’s so unremarkable why would he even choose it? But he has arrived all the same, and he could be anywhere. He could be anyone. He’s enthralled us all and now we are merely camouflage to hide him from God.
People have searched for him for decades and he always slips in and out of our reality as he sees fit and now, he has arrived in our quiet little beach town and none of us stand a chance. We are all corpses, unaware that we are already dead.
I look up and amongst the red and white beach chairs, towels, and outfits, he stands there, cane in hand. He- It? – turns and looks at me with a smile. I stare into eyes so black and deep that I can feel myself begin to drown.
He waves in a way that is both greeting and farewell to the last bits of my sanity. All at once, I understand everything while my brain begins shutting down to protect itself. I have found him, and it has done me no good.
And so, I’ll keep holding my wife until the end arrives. What else is there to do?
I will just hug her for these final moments, terrified of what he has in store for us. All the while, one question is repeated over and over in the back of my head: WHAT IS WALDO?