I Read With a Stranger Every Monday Evening

“Sunglass wearing woman relaxing near swimmingpool with earphone plugged in iPhone at Sao Paulo” by Bruno Gomiero on Unsplash

Okay.

Imagine this.

A person you’ve never met before, living a hundred miles away, calls you every week. You only know their name, their email, and now their phone number. You’ve never spoken to this person in your life, and yet you’re already connected.

This week it’s your turn to read a chapter.

Between the paragraphs, you nervously suck for a breath like you just swam up from deep water. Your words quiver when the vowels and consonants evolve with the space of your mouth. You’re rushed and a bit nervous, and yet you keep moving forward, sounding out the collections of letters in front of you like you’re reading for those reading level exams in elementary school.

Right around the third page, your shoulders ease into a more relaxed position — For when you take a breath and breathe between sentence breaks, the voice on the other end of your receiver chuckles.

The individual isn’t laughing at you. They are laughing at what you just read.

Reeling to remember what you just read aloud in your anxious state, your chuckle almost sounds uncomfortable and fake.

Self-consciously, you try to redeem yourself by making a comment, finally being able to remember what you read a moment ago.