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Theory | Apr 28 2004

I told her that the woman of my dreams is always called either Sophia or Tessa and always has been, despite the fact that I’ve never known anyone named Sophia or Tessa.

Maybe that’s why, I said. Maybe I hold onto these names because they aren’t associated in my mind with an actual person.

She wondered what I would do now—meaning: now that I’ve met someone named Sophia. I said I didn’t know. It’s kind of confusing, I said.

Anyway I don’t know why I told her this, because the whole thing was a lie. I’ve never given a name to the woman of my dreams.

Does she know this? I imagine she does but doesn’t want to let on she knows because that would reveal that she can read my mind.

This is one of my theories: she can read my mind but is pretending she can’t. The reason she’s pretending is because if I knew the truth, there’d be no point in me saying anything. She could simply look at me and know my thoughts.

But it’s not just this. She needs me to talk to study me. That way she gets to compare my thoughts with my words and really see how I operate. For this reason she’s loath to do anything that would inhibit me from talking, including, foremost, letting on that she can read my thoughts.

Such is my theory.

My other theory (I have two) is that in assuming a human form, she has assumed human limitations. This would mean, among other things, that she can’t read my mind any more than I can read hers.

I prefer this theory over the other.