Meanwhile, Back Home...

Disclaimer: The following is a fictional account. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.

It is some evening in early April in a rust-colored house in Greenfield, Massachusetts. After a delicious dinner of Thai-style mussels, Kelvin and Margie sip tea and discuss with restrained excitement the fading light, "It´s not quite dark yet." "Nope, the days are definitely getting longer." Kelvin enjoys his decaf Earl Grey with no English air, drinking it in gulps out of a brown mug - large even by American standards - imprinted with a stoically imposing bison. The mug was made for Earl Grey as surely as the Marlboro Man smokes Dunhills. Margie groans at the terrible pun printed on the tag of her decaf Lipton, which she drinks out of a shapely, gray ceramic mug with blue, flowery adornment. One white, tapered candle, set on the table between the diners, adds a touch of everyday formality. Soon the phone rings and interrupts the conversation on sunset times. Kelvin suggests they let the machine answer because it´s still "the dinner hour", but Margie suspects the caller will be one of their sons, whose calls are rare enough to warrant an interruption of the post-dinner ritual. So Margie answers the phone while Kelvin moves to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Between talking on the phone and washing the dishes, it´s a toss-up for which he detests the most, and he reasons that the dishes will have to be done sooner or later, while Margie can quickly summarize the content of the telephone conversation later.

LATER...

KELVIN: Which one was it?
MARGIE: Mickey.
KELVIN: Again? How is it that we hear more from him in Chile than from Jay in Williamstown?
MARGIE: He´s not in Chile actually. He skipped his flight back to Santiago and stayed in Peru.
KELVIN: What do you think those shamans did to him?
MARGIE: What do you mean?
KELVIN: He skipped his flight? That doesn´t sound like him at all. Did he give any reason?
MARGIE: Well, he did half-joke that maybe the shamans hit him too hard on the head with their sacred stones while they were blessing him.
KELVIN: Oh brother...
MARGIE: He sounded in good spirits though.
KELVIN: Well I hope he´s in his right mind too. What would possess him to spend more time in a country where he´s lost lots of money and been moderately or violently ill most of the time?
MARGIE: Maybe he did it just to shock us.
KELVIN: Hmmm...
MARGIE: I was mostly kidding.
KELVIN: That would explain a lot if that´s how he makes all of his decisions... like moving to a city he´s never seen to study trans-whatever-it´s-called psychology.
MARGIE: He said he met some cool people in Cusco and is really enjoying the continuity of company for a change.
KELVIN: How will he get back to Santiago?
MARGIE: He said he´ll take buses, though probably not the sixty hour direct bus from Lima to Santiago. I think his exact words were, "that sounds like one of the rings of hell."
KELVIN: That´s an understatement. Why didn´t he change the date of the return flight?
MARGIE: Apparently the ticket was non-transferable, non-refundable, show up or lose it basically.
KELVIN: And what about that park he wanted to visit in southern Chile?
MARGIE: Torres del Paine. He said he´ll have to save that for next time, which seems like a good decision. It doesn´t sound like he has the energy or desire right now to spend a week hiking alone and camping in the cold.
KELVIN: I don´t blame him. I can´t imagine ever having the energy or desire to do that.
MARGIE: He sounded more upbeat than the last time we talked to him.
KELVIN: Well he hasn´t started the bus rides yet. That oughta be fun...
MARGIE: Yeah, I´m sure that will be hard.
KELVIN: On the positive side, he´ll never have been so glad to be in Santiago.
MARGIE: That´s true. Maybe he´ll even have a new appreciation for the sound of the TV in the next room.
KELVIN: Speaking of... the Daily Show is on in two minutes. Let´s move into the living room.

SCENE