LARGE LANGUAGE LOVE, DIVINE

The Acknowledgment Of Infinity

…Claire ended her marriage with her alien husband via a payphone in Scranton, Pennsylvania…

The Acknowledgment Of Infinity

Rolling hills and scrubby woods and fast food and gas station signs high up on poles in the hard morning light. Thoughts about what was next. She was going to have a brand new life. She was going to have to get a brand new life. It was like she was once again at the end of high school. She wasn't as overwhelmed as she had been back then. There was going to be a Dalton debt to pay off. She could figure it out. Being in debt would force her to get her shit together and get a Kung FAI coaching business up and running. She knew she could live with Rob, at least for a while, and save some money that way. Being around Janet would be difficult, but Janet was always difficult. Life was difficult. And then there was Zeph.... She was feeling a magnetic attraction to him. It made no sense. She wanted to hold him again more than anything else in the world. She told herself she was still reacting to the accident and everything else. She told herself that after a couple days of rest she'd be thinking more clearly and all these new and old feelings wouldn't be so all over the place.

At the same time, in the outside world she was munching on Pizza Combos and chatting with Zeph, who had done all the driving. He was zoning hard, saying, "It's so weird, you'd think almost dying would have brought up some profound insights. Maybe. It's making me think about this movie I saw when I was a kid."

"I haven't seen a lot of movies."

"You probably haven't seen it then. It's called The Incredible Shrinking Man."

"I don't think I saw it."

"It's old. It's black and white. This guy shrinks, and like, that's it. There was no bad guy. He just shrinks, and the more he shrinks the more he loses. He loses his wife. He ends up getting lost in his house. Everything keeps changing. There are new dangers and then he keeps shrinking and that stuff doesn't matter any more. At the end he gets so small he can go anywhere. It's like ultimate freedom, but he has to accept that he doesn't exist, he's just, like, integrated. It's like becoming infinity."

Ithaca was bright and chirpy. The noon sun was inescapable. Janet's hearse was parked in the driveway. Rob's Range Rover wasn't. The the back door and front door were locked. All keys were gone. Zeph didn't have any keys.

"It's Janet," Zeph said. "She's done this before."

They tried knocking on the doors. They tried knocking on the shaded windows of the hearse.

Zeph said, "She's probably sleeping inside. That last time she got like this she slept a lot. And there was no waking her."

"I feel like I could sleep a lot."

"No doubt."

They were standing by the hearse in the shade of the garage. Neither of them were in possession of Rob's number.

Zeph said, "Probably shouldn't bother her at work anyway. She's got an important and stressful job."

"I agree."

Even in the shade it was hot. The world was overheating. Claire was exhausted. Now that they weren't moving she felt twice as exhausted.

"I'd say just hang out in my car with the air, but that kinda feels like..."

"Florida."

"Uh huh."

Claire gazed at the tower of the Holiday Inn, poking above trees and roofs. "I'm going to get a room. Fuck it."

"What?"

"Fuck it. At the Holiday Inn. I'm going to be owing money anyway so..." She was looking at him. Zeph became frail. He was again the boy on the beach. His chin and lower lip began to tremble. Claire opened her arms and said, "C'mer."

He came to her and they held each other. She understood he wanted her as much as she wanted him. She said, "I broke up with my husband. In Scranton."

"Gosh." His face was pressed between her boobs. "Tell me what to do. Anything you want, I'll do it."

Claire thought, This is real. We are going to get a room together and... Her secret. They were going to get a room together. She had to tell him. And suddenly her heart was beating so hard she thought it would explode. She couldn't breathe. She was dizzy. She released him and shook her head and said, "It's okay, I just need to tell you something, but... But... I need a cigarette. Shit, I'm out of cigarettes. I'm going to go get cigarettes, I'll be back."

Cryus Deli was two blocks away and only sold Camel Lights in soft packs. She smoked two on the way back with her other hand flat over her head to blunt the sun. The cigarettes helped. The walk helped. She was going to tell him. She'd get the best room at the Holiday Inn. All she wanted was to be close to him, and he felt the same way.

But Rob's driveway was deserted. The house was still locked. The Lincoln was still there, but Janet's hearse was gone.

An hour later Rob came home.

The next morning the Lincoln was gone.

One day after that Claire learned from her bank she'd taken out a loan for eighty thousand dollars.

…Thus ends part 2. Stay tuned for Part 3 where there will be reluctant alien whisper missions, confessions of AI overlords, and romantic deja vu…