Sliding Phones

I’m two different people at the same time. I spent almost a year living in Eastern Europe. When I moved back to the US, I made seven round trips in a 3-month period between the two locations. When the airplane touched down, I would put my clunky smartphone away and take out my dinky flipphone (or vice-versa).

Each phone features a roster of local phone numbers and saved text messages from that locale. I customarily call M-- and S-- (or J-- and G--) and find out what’s happening on the ground that night. It’s been four months since I last touched down but I find I still belong in both places. I live in two different universes: two different sets of friends, histories, conversation topics, shared experiences, and goals. But I'm the same guy.

s.d.