by Danilo Lopez

Created on: January 15, 2009   Last Updated: November 10, 2010

The Squandering

Did you know that the universe is vibrating not only in the three extended spatial dimensions and in spacetime but also in six "curled up" additional dimensions that are infinitesimally small? These dimensions may have what is called a Calabi-Yau shape, anyway, this guy Norman Allen

"And who's this guy again?" interjects my wife after a sigh while checking her e-mails. He describes himself as a former scientist, current alternative medicine practitioner, drawing and writer aficionado "Hello?" comes her voice again, loud, answering her ubiquitous blackberry.

I turn back to my driving and press the CD player button. Bach's Concerto Nr. 1 F-dur BWV 1046 takes command of the airwaves. I lower the volume as to not interfere with her call too much. She turns it down more, to almost mute. I turn the damn thing off and start looking for the exit to Starbucks. After five years of daily commute between Dallas and Fort Worth I could drive with my eyes closed.

I have to travel to Nicaragua, I say when she hangs up a couple of miles later. "What? Your parents again?" No, it's Jose Luis. Turns out he appointed me his will executor. "Were you two that close?" It appears so; his brother-in-law called me last night and told me about it, apparently "Hold on, I just remember something. Hello, Keisha? Hey listen, that meeting with Dr. Johnson has to be postponed" So I give up. For five years this has been going on. We used to work together early in our careers. It was right after the ousting of Anastasio Somoza's government by the Sandinistas back in 79. We were oh so young and nave, filled with idealism and very much in love with each other. Not in vain I spent six months in exile after almost being killed in a skirmish with the soon to be defunct National Guard. But today, as a friend of ours says jokingly, "we are almost like siblings". But I don't pay much attention to that anymore. The daily challenges of an empty nest are how to stand each other without too much grief. Stay out of the other's way, and pretend that happiness is in the little, unimportant details, like mowing the lawn, cleaning the pool, putting down the toilet seat, and washing the bathtub.

Oh shut! "What?" she asks startled. I missed the exit to Starbucks. "Don't worry, you'll see another one soon enough". She's right on that one. On each side of the road, cities fuse with cities and it all looks like the same long city cloned again and again, with the same Target, Starbucks, McDonald's,

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