Butterflies and Hurricanes

“I feel like I’m a typo.”

Ed’s buttery fingers froze mid-way before he could fill his mouth with another handful of popcorn. It was an awfully regular Sunday afternoon. He didn’t shave. She didn’t wax her legs. They were watching re-runs of their favourite show, sprawled on the floor on a messy blanket. It was perfect. For him, at least.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I feel like I’m a typo,” Ann repeated, and looked at him petulantly.

Oh my lord, he thought. He knew what was coming. Slinky was going to slink into one of her moods. Must tread carefully.

“What do you mean you’re a typo?”

“What are typos, Ed? They are words that were meant to be something else. They were meant to serve another purpose. But because you’ve already pressed ‘send’, they’re out there now. Lingering, walking around with asterisks on their head, questioning their existence. Do you know what I mean?”

Ed took a sip of his apple juice. “I think so. But actually, it’s the corrected words that have asterisks on them.”

“Ugh! Technicalities. I’m trying to make a point here!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

Ann stared at the ceiling, twisting a strand of her unkempt hair. “Typos are auto-corrected. They are modified into being something they are not. What if I’m a ‘gave’, and I’m walking around as a ‘have’? Typos are anomalies. The outsiders. The odd ducks. I feel like I’m meant to be somewhere else, doing something else.”

Ed smiled. He slid an arm around her shoulder. “If you’re a typo, then I can be your dictionary. We can figure this out together.”

She sat up. “Damn it, Ed! I DO NOT want you to be my “dictionary!””

Uh oh. Why isn’t there a backspace in actual conversations? Argh!

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was —“

“Forget it! I’m going outside to take a walk.”

Ten minutes later, Ann came back, her nose red because of the cold, and her hair messier than before. She threw herself at Ed and wrapped her arms around him. “Could you just be the squiggly line underneath me?” she asked.

“Of course. Always,” he repeated as he hugged her back, and felt her melting against his arms.