Semi-Charmed Life

Perfect Communication

I can understand many things my wife thinks before she even says a word, and guess at her mood from changes so slight that I imagine no one else could see them. . . . I can sometimes tell her she's anxious or tired before she has even realized it herself. "You look sad," I'll say, and she'll say something like, "Am I? Oh yes, I suppose I am." It's a beautiful kind of knowledge, since it brings us closer to each other, and as the years go by, her face says more and more to me. When I first met her, it was almost a mask, and I saw only its main lines. Now it almost never stops speaking to me, even when she is asleep. . . .

If I am looking at my wife and not saying a word . . . I am sending very gentle motions, faint undulations in the pool, and each one comes back to me as quickly as I send it. The two of us are like the two sides of a bowl, and the water between shimmers with an intricate pattern of crossing waves. Some of the most important moments of my life have been spent looking into her face as she looks back into mine and watching the liquid motions of her eyes as they make their silent points. In comparison to that kind of communication, everything else is crass. -- James Elkins