A couple of more weeks have gone by. On a few occasions, both Bob and Carol have noticed the garage door open across the street for brief periods of time, and each time there seem to be more stacks of boxes inside. However, they have yet to spot any sign of the new owner. No unfamiliar vehicle(s), including no moving truck. No unrecognized male figure moving about the premises. Until one evening, Carol spots some movement in the garage. Wishing to greet her new neighbor, she wanders across the street; but before she’s all the way across, the figure inside spots her and comes out into the driveway to greet her. It’s Mary.
MARY: Well, howdy neighbor! And how’s Carol this fine evening?
CAROL: Mary? Oh...hi! I thought you might be Mr. Garcia. What are you doing over here?
MARY: Oh, I’m just helping our new neighbor get settled in. You know, shifting some things around, making room for more. All part of your Friendly Neighborhood Realtor service! (beams big smile).
CAROL: Ah! Wow, you guys sure go the extra mile to close that sale, don’t you?
MARY: That we do, Carol. That we do. (beams another big smile)
CAROL: Say, Mary, I was wondering something. You know, I have yet to see a moving truck dropping any of this stuff off. It just seems to appear all by itself. What gives?
MARY: Oh, Mr. Garcia works most of the day, and long hours besides. He usually swings by late at night, and just drops off a few things at a time.
CAROL: But Bob and I have seen the garage door open several times the last couple of weeks, and during the day.
MARY: That’d be me. Like I said, just helping out (beams yet a third big smile)
CAROL: Ah! Well, that’s awfully nice of...
CRASH! A stack of cardboard boxes at the front of the garage tips over, and spills out into the driveway. Instinctively, Carol runs over to check out the damage. Mary cries out “Wait, don’t touch those!” but not before Carol reaches the one nearest her, and picks it up. Easily. In fact, it seems to be empty. Mary immediately takes it from her, puts it back into the garage, and then pushes the rest of them inside. Again, quite easily. They all seem to be empty, or at least very lightweight. Carol wants to investigate further, but before she can step into the garage, Mary pulls the door closed, slides the latch, and locks it.
MARY: Well, I guess that’s it for today.
Carol, sensing some tension from Mary, and feeling she’s about to be dismissed, quips:
CAROL: Wow, light boxes! What is this Mr. Garcia, anyway? An air salesman?
MARY: Naw, those were just some I’d already unpacked. Mostly kitchen and bathroom stuff. Hey, it’s getting kinda late. I should run home and start dinner. I’ll see you around, Carol?
CAROL: Sure, see you around, Mary. Have a good evening.
MARY: You do the same, Carol.
Mary wanders back across the street to her home, and goes inside. Carol feels somewhat puzzled. The situation seems a little strange to her. She stands there in the Garcia driveway for a moment, looking at the ground, and pondering. When she looks up, she sees Mary watching her from her livingroom window. She smiles and waves at Carol, and Carol waves back. Finally, Carol shrugs to herself, and goes home to take her roast out of the oven. She feels a vague uneasiness.
What’s changed since the last segment? Why does Carol feel uneasy? It seems that the flow of events has taken a somewhat atypical turn, yes? Isn’t the idea of a real estate agent helping a client move into his house...unusual? Perhaps, though certainly it’s not beyond the realm of reasonable possibility. Especially considering that Mary lives right across the street. Maybe she and Mr. Garcia have become friends. Taken by itself, I don’t think this would raise any red flags with most people. However, there are the other things. The stack of empty boxes. The fact that Mr. Garcia is yet to be seen by either Carol or Bob. And perhaps most significantly, the subtle tension Carol sensed coming from Mary. Of course, this could be chalked up to a number of things having to do with other, unrelated things going on in Mary’s life, or even to Carol’s own imagination. But taken together, all these small deviations from the norm are starting to get to Mary. Not in any big way. In fact, for the most part they’re probably registering on a subconscious level. Her brain is processing these small anomalies, working to fit them into the moving picture of reality it carries around with itself. But something’s not quite right...maybe...thus Carol’s slight feeling of unease.
QUESTION: Are Carol’s feelings justified at this point, slight though they be, or can they be summarily dismissed? Is this early foreboding of suspicion rational? Irrational? Pre-rational?
Later on, after dinner, Carol talks to Bob about the situation without weighing in with any judgments, since in fact she hasn’t gone so far as to form any yet. Still, her unease is reflected in her voice. Bob shrugs, makes a remark about how nice it is that the house across the street isn’t sitting vacant anymore, and takes another sip of his coffee.
I almost believed her suspicions could be dismissed, so I reread the encounter...
ReplyDeleteI think the oddest point is "Wait, don’t touch those!". Why would Mary care if Carol touches empty boxes? In fact, you'd think she'd be glad to have help picking them up (or keeping them from falling over).
Now, Carol is in a harder position. Assuming she doesn't have an eidetic memory, she can't go over events word for word, searching for ambiguities.
As a Christian, I would like to think the best of people (part of loving them). Of course, I'd also understand that everyone is a sinner.
Assuming Carol is not a Christian, she is going to be subject to her history and any peculiar sins (does she have some prejudicial mistrust of all people? Is she jealous or angry with Mary, even subconsciously?)
Given she is described as "skeptical to a fault", I would imagine she will be replaying events. But will her memory fail her totally? Or will she misremember events?
Exciting stuff! Actually, no, I hope you reach a point soon! ;)
Sorry to disappoint you, but my 'point' will probably be spread out through the entire series, which might turn out to be rather long. I want to touch on a lot of areas, exploring the ways we assess reality, and how we sometimes make mistakes in doing so. My goal is to demonstrate how induction works through a host of examples. If you feel like hanging in there, thanks; but if you lose interest along the way, I won't hold it against you :)
ReplyDeletenedbrek, I wanted to explore something you said:
ReplyDelete"Given she is described as "skeptical to a fault", I would imagine she will be replaying events."
Why do you suppose a skeptic would be replaying events? Since you've made a point to emphasize this, would it be fair to say that, in your view, a skeptic is more interested in examining evidence than a non-skeptic?
You might phrase it that way... I tend to talk about everything in terms of sin.
ReplyDeleteDoes that offend/annoy/put off you?
(That was re. your second comment) Re the first, I will try to stick around. My time tends to come and go in bunches...
ReplyDelete"Does that offend/annoy/put off you?"
ReplyDeleteNot at all. I understand where you're coming from, I think. I was working on scene 3 when you posted. Hope you'll be able to hang in there. Might have it finished tonight or tomorrow, then I need to break off and finish some other writing projects. Hopefully not for too long...I'm having some fun with this!
Justified, of course. Though, I'm sure you intended the result to be exactly that. No real need of explaining why this is as it is rather apparent.
ReplyDeleteI have a few issues with what the other poster said in his comments. But, they're irrelevant and you'll probably touch on them later.
This seems like a fun project.
shadb:
ReplyDeleteSo far, it HAS been quite fun to write. It really IS turning into a project, isn't it? My aim here is to demonstrate how our truth assessments aren't derived from cut-and-dried logical or philosophic premises, but emerge from a model built of assumptions gleaned from an experiential data base. David Hume pointed out long ago that our evaluations of reality are based upon habitual observations, and not along lines of deductive reasoning. Of course, our interpretations can be, and often are, flawed. I hope to demonstrate through this series how we sometimes go wrong, and why, through what I intend to be an easily understandable allegory. This trenchwar of flinging accusations of logical fallacies back and forth goes nowhere, in my view. Especially in the case of the apologists, their agenda seems to be increasingly constructed of arguments that never touch the ground. The jargon gets so thick that very soon no one can move about in it, which I believe is to some degree intentional. Theists are waging a war of attrition; they haven't moved forward in centuries, so they've shifted tactics, buttressing their defenses with layers of extraneous convolution, and learning to dodge, dodge, dodge the realities of their position. Ironically, they've come to depend on logic-speak to avoid reason...hehehehehe! And when I say reason, I mean the kind of reason all of us use everyday to move through the real world i.e. 'common sense'.
Glad to have you aboard, shadb. I hope to make it worth your time. And TIME there will BE...mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Wasn't there an X-files episode that started off like this? (Or was it Outer Limits?)
ReplyDeleteildi, there will most emphatically NOT be a monster on the wing of the aircraft! However, I reserve the right for Mulder and Scully to share another kiss.
ReplyDelete