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The morning after Ben and I arrived in Washington I tip-toed out of her bedroom and entered the living room.

I didn’t have to tip-toe but it was moment worthy of tip-toeing. I felt it necessary. I also peeked around corners and closed the door quietly and pretended I had night vision goggles. All unnecessary. Ben was at the computer. He turned and gave me a half-cockeyed look followed by the trace of a smile. His lonely air-mattress lay nearby unoccupied.

“Good morning,” he said.

I nodded.

There was a pause but it was not awkward. Little is between us. Rarely are our exchanges fettered with uneasy titterings and careful tiptoeings. We are fairly straightforward guys and, because of this, I said:

“I have to find something else to search for on this trip.”

Ben nodded.

“How long did that take?” he asked, looking at the clock. “Couldn’t have been very long.”

“Four and a half hours,” I said. “I held out as long as I could but there is only so much you can ask from a man.”

“That’s the difference between you and me,” he mused, “I would never have waited that long.”

And he turned back to the computer. And what he said was true. He wouldn’t have.

And this articulates one of the finer nuances of the known universe: given a set of perceived variables the outcome or result of said variables is dependent not on the quality or nature of the variables themselves, but of the observer. And as that this was our first observable moment on our trip, I was glad that we both perceived the outcome the same: I had found #6.

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