"Did you drive up just for that?"
"No, my parents live in Albany but I wanted to see your work and listen to you."
"Wow, thank you" she said humbly.
When they finished eating and were walking to the museum he said, "So, you were in Thailand before coming here. What were your impressions of it?"
"Hmm…I guess that before I went there I half-way wondered if it would be comprised of people without wills the way the Buddha rejected self saying it was an illusion—but no; it was full of mall hoppers and people pacing here and there anxiously with their cellular telephones, eyes glazed over, totally self-absorbed like in the states although perhaps less of them…a lot of poor seeming so quaint from my vantage point but probably not from theirs. What's your impression of Italy so far?"
"Well, it is hard to say with so many tourists. If they get rid of the tourists one can have an impression."
She laughed. She liked that answer. It seemed to her the correct answer; and since he seemed to her a conduit of reality, she felt that he was enmeshed with her somehow. She did not want to believe in fate but here they were together in such an unexpected place. The strangeness made her a bit superstitious. "How long will you be here?"
"Maybe a week. And you?"
"Not long. I can't afford it and Nathaniel won't pick up the phone or reply to email so that troubles me."
"Anything wrong?"