My thoughts in the Shower
Have you ever let your thoughts drift between reality and imagination in the shower. It's my favorite past time.
I always think the weirdest things in the shower. Sometimes they make sense, but other times, I don’t get them. Then I end up asking myself, “What exactly was that?”
Today I was thinking about relationships and how I don’t understand divorce. Aren’t the two people involved supposed to be in love? In reply, my mind created an entirely unrealistic story between a couple.
It was a story about a man and a woman. They claimed they loved each other deeply but there were those little icks. The woman was very possessive of her man and always had this feeling of distrust around him, thinking he might be cheating on her with someone else. (Honestly, people like this irritate me, I mean, why enter the relationship at all and get married?)
Anyway, ironically, the man, a decent guy who genuinely cares for his wife, also felt that she was not faithful to him and didn’t entirely trust her either. (Perfect matches do exist.)
Occasionally, a conversation during breakfast could go like this:
Woman: Where are you going today? (Not looking directly at him).
Man: (Already dressed up) to work, where else would I be going? I should be asking you what you want to do today. (Also not directly looking at her).
(Me: I choose to believe couples like this, don’t exist and this is entirely a figment of my imagination).
Woman: I’m heading to my work place per usual, where else would I go?
Man: Hmm, ok, is that guy still there?
Woman: My manager, of course (rolls eye), and your secretary? (Subtle side eye).
Man: (huffs annoyed) I don’t care about her.
Woman: If you say so.
Man: (leaves).
The story continues…
(And this is where it gets crazy—as crazy as it can be)
One day, in the woman’s workplace, she hears about a seer for couples. A couple who had come to her workplace were discussing how their life had changed right after consulting her. They were having issues because the woman didn’t want a child and the man did, so they went to her to figure out what to do and if they had a future together. The “seer” cured them. She got them back together after getting divine inspiration from her orb. Now, they are so happy with each other and the man’s wife is now willing to have a child with the man.
The woman, of course, on hearing this, jumped at the opportunity. This was a one in a lifetime opportunity to prove that her husband was cheating on her and rest her case. So, she pitched it to her husband, who also jumped on the idea.
And so, the couple without hesitation, approached the seer. The seer was a quaint little woman whose scent was that of lavender. She already seemed trustworthy and credible.
On consultation, the seer requested they stretch out their arms. She studied the outstretched arms for a few minutes and then moved to another corner of her place. There, on a large archaic table that seemed to originate from the medieval times, sat a glistening blue orb.
She studied the orb for a whole minute, muttering under her breath, before turning back to the couple.
She then told them this, “The future holds very little for both of you, because in a few months, one of you will prove to be unfaithful to the other”.
Both of them immediately looked at the other and exclaimed, “I knew it!”
The man instantly barraged her for messing around with her manager behind his back.
On the other hand, the woman also berated him for messing around with his secretary.
With the tension in the air, they demanded to know, there and then, who would cheat on the other.
They both asked, “who would it be?”
However, the seer told them that the orb’s power would take a month to replenish. Until then, she couldn’t say for certain who would cheat. Soon after, she bade them farewell.
The couple went home feeling accomplished yet miserable. Despite hoping they were both right about the other’s unfaithfulness, they were sad that it had driven a wedge between them and they could no longer behave as a couple.
Strangely though, both of them were certain that it wouldn’t be them. They were very sure that it would be the other one. So, for weeks, they were barely holding on to the relationship, always watching each other to figure out who would eventually cut the thread.
Eventually, the month elapsed and so did the couples’ patience with each other. The woman who couldn’t wait one more day, decided to go back to the seer alone. She wanted to have the upper hand against her husband when she found out that he was the one that has been messing around. On meeting the seer, who had asked what she needed, she told her exasperatedly, “I need to know, who would be unfaithful. I can’t keep up this life of monitoring my husband every day.”
The seer, as usual, asked her to stretch out her arms and observed it. She then went back to her orb and looked closely at it.
Suddenly, she gasped out exaggeratedly. “It’s you!”
The woman sputtered, “That… that’s not possible. I have been faithful my whole life. I have never looked at another man, ever! My husband, on the other hand, has this secretary in his office that he doesn’t want to get rid of. Look at it better; you’re seeing the wrong thing.”
The seer, however, began to move about strangely, much to the woman’s irritation.
“My orb says the woman will cause the downfall of the relationship and it never lies.”
The woman once again was shocked.
How could she, after living such an abstinent life, because she believed in keeping herself till marriage. And all this time, she had been blaming her husband when, in fact, it would be her fault. How terrible. “There is no way I’ll do that.” She said to herself and the seer, “I’ll prove you wrong.” With that, she left the place feeling ashamed.
The man, on the other hand, having had similar thoughts and wanted to get to the root of the problem as well, visited the seer.
The seer carried out the same process as with the woman, and on looking into her orb once again, she exclaimed, “It’s you! You are the one to cause the deterioration of that once beautiful relationship.” The seer sighed sadly, “how terrible.”
The man was in shock.
He had married his wife and had vowed to himself that he would never cheat, no matter what. It hurt that his wife blamed him constantly, but he believed that she too was not holy. So how could he be the one who would cheat? He truthfully had no feelings for his secretary.
He sighed, thinking to himself, “I’ve messed up big time. I can’t be the one to ruin this relationship. It is a lie. I’ll prove it.”
And so, the man and the woman equally stopped blaming each other for their unfaithfulness. Rather, they focused on the fact that it was each of them individually, who were to cheat. They both simultaneously decided to end whatever hurdle was in the way and start acting like a couple again.
They started doing things together again, laughing together and making sure to do things that wouldn’t cause the other to think otherwise. All this in their quest to prove to themselves that they would not be the one to cheat.
What an annoyingly complicated relationship.
And that is where the story ends.
My favorite part was when the seer said the same thing for both of them. Normally, I think seers are fake but in this case, we can agree that her technique for this couple worked perfectly. I believe, fake or not, she does her job well.
What do you think about this story?