Every Wednesday in winter, when there was hardly anyone else there, I went down to the beach and read until sunset. I never thought I’d run into anyone I knew; least of all, you. I wanted to slip away and pretend that I hadn’t seen you. Instead, I came up and said hello, even as I felt certain that you wouldn’t even remember my name. I’ve reminded myself many times since then that I was reading If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler that day. And everyone knows that Calvino only wrote to goad his readers into their biggest mistakes.
Amrita V. Nair is a writer and researcher whose works have appeared in Okay Donkey, Yuzu Press, Boats Against the Current, and elsewhere. www.amritanair.com