A Shadowy Reminder of Love

Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images. -Jean Cocteau

This story is automatically nominated for the 2005 Freudian Slips Irony Award. It could be better told by Paul Harvey, renowned radio moderator. Please allow me to weave my own Paul Harvey impersonation in prose. Petra, the Jordanian news agency, reported the following case of mistaken identity. Two star crossed Jordanian lovers started an online Internet relationship. Since both were married, each assumed pseudonyms to protect their true identities. The two shared cyber dreams and desires through torrid emails. Their spouses knew nothing of their secret identity. Each vowed to leave their unfulfilled relationships for a chance to start over. When their relationship could not contain itself through cybespace, they agreed to clandestinely meet each other at a train station convenient to the both of them. The tryst consummated at the train station. Sparks flew with the humbling reminder of their marital vows. The two online lovers, however, were not really meeting one another for the first time. In fact, they knew each other very well. They hailed from the same home town and had attended each other’s wedding. They knew all the same people. You see they were indeed married…to each other.

Love can be blind but was it love at second sight for this confused dashing couple? Guess again. Fingers pointed. Sparks flew in rage that fateful day at the train station. The woeful tale of unwittingly rendering their own demise was brought to light in their divorce proceedings. Sometimes the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. The splendor of the grass can be a disguise; the same trampled earth we walk on reconstituted by mad cows sent out to pasture.