I know she’s been binging A Discovery of Witches and Outlander. For those not in the know the latter is the story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743 Scotland. I watched most of the first season and then abandoned it. Ex-wife not interested and too much bodice ripper for me.

She enters my room and asks “So, do you follow sci-fi or time travel?”

Yes that’s an odd question. Follow? It’s leading. I’ve been reading sci-fi since I was 8 and have always been fascinated by time travel but I KNOW that “yes” is the wrong answer here. See above.

Me: (without looking up from my work) “No.”

Her: “Well maybe you can explain this to me …” She then goes into a 2-3 minute detailed spoiler filled exposition of the most recent episode she’s seen and asks me to explain to her how it can work. Remember, my answer to her first question was “no.”

Me: “I can’t.” I COULD. I just preferred NOT to. And while she prattled on about her confusion regarding a very basic literary treatment of time travel I grabbed my bug-out bag and quietly departed.