Open Water

The two main characters talk on the phone, confessing that they’ve both been a little depressed. The narrator elaborates that he’s tired and knows that the woman understands it is emotional weariness rather than physical. She shares that she uses pleasurable activities like smoking, drinking, treating herself, and dancing to address her own tiredness.

The narrator asks more about her dancing. She describes dancing as creating space that she controls, so that she can fully know herself. This strikes the narrator, and he tells her about the jazz night described in the previous chapter, saying that he had a similar powerful feeling. They agree to go when she’s back from Dublin. The two listen to each other’s breathing over the phone and she falls asleep.

The narrator visits the woman’s mother, and they have tea and cookies while watching the Winter Olympics. He is there because bad weather kept him and the woman from seeing each other before she left for Dublin, and he needs to pick up his hoodie. The woman’s mother makes fun of the sport of curling and asks the narrator about his day. He stayed at home in the cold and wrote a little but mostly reread his favorite writer Zadie Smith’s novel, NW.