Game Over?
“Wow, great job! You made it look easy!” You wave your hand as you speak, mechanically moving back and forth, back and forth. A smile holds in place, unwavering, stretched across your face. It doesn’t reach your eyes, staring blankly at the bright wall ahead of you. Your cheeks still ache as you smile, even with years of experience. Years? Decades? Who knows. It’s impossible to track time here. You keep waving. And waving. The smile is automatic now. It hurts, but what else is there to do? You can’t stop it even if you want. You try to fall into the rhythm of the wave, back and forth, feeling your hand swaying like seaweed under a steady wave near the shore, in and out, back and forth. You can almost feel the currents in the water, imagine the smell of the salt and fish along a shore, hear the rush of the waves as they crash, when again you blurt out, “Wow, great job! You made it look easy!” And just like that, the fantasy is gone again. ...