A Slice of a Novel in Progress..

Since NanoWrimo is digesting so much of my time, I thought I'd share a section from the ongoing work, a little floating background for our main character and his wife...

Here's a story you might be familiar with. Usual case, stop me if you've heard this one. You've gone to eat out at a restaurant by yourself. You've got no enthusiasm for cooking at home, and somehow you feel like you've earned it, so why the hell not eat out? It's not like this is something new or depressing for you, you've done it a few times before and since the order of business is food rather than social contact, you've never seen it as a particularly weird thing. So you've gone to this restaurant on your own, and they sit you at a table by yourself and you order your food. You get the occasional weird look but you don't mind because you’re secure in who you are, what you're doing and how you live your life. Besides, there are plenty of other diners by themselves it seems, or couples clustered closely together on march larger tables. As the night goes on more people start to file into the restaurant. A college has opened up recently, or a sports fixture has been won, maybe it's payday for a whole lot of people. Whatever the reason, the restaurant is starting to get busy. Halfway through your starter the waiter comes over, coughs to announce his presence, then politely makes a request. For the sake of the larger parties arriving, the restaurant has decided to seat all the lone diners together, to turn all the couples and solos into large groups, making way for those who need the average size tables without the inconvenience of sharing. You think you're going to get annoyed but remind yourself that it's all about the food, and ultimately that experience is unlikely to change.

And that's when you see her.

Your eyes meet over the food you're eating and within moments you've sparked up conversation. You find you have infinitely more in common than you would ever have suspected, find both your evenings enriched by each other's company, see a whole world of possibilities opening in the life before you, the life that you will undoubtedly share together, the life you do share together, constantly looking back on this day when you were so intent on dining alone and found each other.

Only you didn't, and that never happened. It never happened because it's fantastical nonsense, fictionalised droll that never happens to real people in real situations, never happens to anyone ever. People aren't subject to quirks of destiny and fate, brought together in unusual circumstances that resonate on down through the rest of their lives together. People go to places and they do things. People meet people and they interact. People travel to locations and learn information and swap knowledge and nothing interesting ever happens to anyone ever.