My wife lay beside me, fast asleep. Suddenly, a Facebook notification floated across my phone screen like a drifting cloud. A woman asked to be added as a friend, so I tapped accept and let her in.
I sent her a message: “Do we know each other?”
She replied: “I heard youve got married, but I still love you.”
A friend from my past, her photo gleamed with an unreal beauty, as if taken in a place where time is tangled. I closed the chat window and looked at my wifeEmilypeacefully dreaming after a long, tiring day at work.
As I watched her, it struck me how she trusts me enough to sleep so soundly in our new house, far from her old home. She used to live wrapped in the circle of her family, spending each hour surrounded by warmth. When she was upset or sad, her mother would soothe her, letting her cry in her lap. Her brother would pull silly faces, making Emily laugh, and her father would arrive home with gifts, always knowing just what made her smile. Now, shes here, believing in me.
These thoughts trickled through my mind like an odd May rain, so I picked up my phone and hit “BLOCK,” banishing the strange visitor back to the shadowy world of the internet.
I turned toward Emily and let myself be carried into sleep beside her.
I am a man, not a boy. I made a vow to her, and I will keep it. No matter how dreamlike the temptation or how surreal the hour, I will fight always to be the kind of man who does not betray his wife or shatter his family.
