“Let’s go Dutch and split the bill.”
“Nah, I got to the counter first, so I’ll pay. My treat.”
“Thanks. Really.”
“Let’s go sit upstairs. Did you get the napkins?”
“Yes. Hey, what’s with your front tooth, it’s missing.”
“I was robbed.”
“And all they wanted was the front tooth?”
“No, my wallet, obviously.”
“Was just kidding. I am sorry for that, they hit bad didn’t they?”
“Yeah, I already replaced the lower front teeth. Still this one is missing.”
“Does it happen to you that after a long period of silence, the phone rings,
and you start talking and suddenly you get another phone call at the same
time? Just like that, someone else wanting to talk to you?”
“Yeah, I thought I was paranoid thinking that!”
“No, paranoia would be if the same person wanted to talk to you and me
while we’re talking to someone else…”
“That would be freakish!”
“Something close happened to it. I once got an email from a buddy in Am-
sterdam that was destined to two people, me and a British person. Oddly, it
turned out that the British person in question was also a fried of mine. But
when he saw two emails he recognized, he accused my Dutch buddy of hack-
ing into his account. Of course, the explanation was very simple: It turned out
that, out of all the people on the net, we three had to know each other, form-
ing a bizarre triangle that we never knew it existed. Now that’s paranoid!”
“You’re in the shits, aren’t you?”
“Is it so obvious?”
“Well, we’re all human, we all have our flaws. Nobody’s perfect.”
“Not even me?”
“There’s only one who’s perfect.”
“What… You? You got to be kidding!”
“No dummy, I mean the guy hanging on your neck.”
“Oh, him. But hey Jesus never had to be in a no-man’s land. OK, maybe just
for three days between resurrection and ascension, it wasn’t like anything
without a deadline. It was known for a long time that he’d be missing his
flight, all prophecies said that.”
“All I can say is: Keep the faith!”

“In what? Oh, that!”
“Well, I had it rough too. Not just the robbery. There were the strokes of my
mother, finding a nurse, the splitting between two states, the house renova-
tion. Sometimes you just want to hang a sign that says: Sorry, we’re closed!”
“There was this shop, a thrift store, that had at the bottom of its working
hours a notice that said: Sorry for the inconvenience. It’s like saying, we
know we’re bugging you, but we have to open once in a while.”
“So what I end up doing is just disconnecting myself and traveling for two
weeks every year, and not being reached.”
“I tried that. This trip was supposed to be all about rest and relaxation. Then,
well, this came out of nowhere.”
“You’ll be back home, I am sure.”
“In this lifetime? I think I overdid this salad bar thing, I had a couple of
scoops too many. Do you want some of this?”
“No, I am fine. It was a good lunch though. Don’t forget your backpack.”
“We could do it again tomorrow. It will be my treat.”