“That’s weird”, I mumble as I finish chewing a bit of toast.

“What’s weird?” Anne asks sleepily, as she turns a page of the morning paper.

“Well, you know I look at my phone every morning to check the weather and the traffic…”

“Mmhhmm,” she replied not really paying any attention.

“So… you know how the phone sets your starting point as home? Well, for the last week the damn thing has set my home to someplace in the New Mexico desert. I keep restarting the phone, every time I open the app, it sets home as the middle of nowhere.”

Anne was staring at me now, “come again?”

“Like I said, my home is set to the middle of nowhere New Mexico… really weird.

“Can I see your phone?” She asked.

I hand her the phone and grabbed another piece of toast.

“Yeah,” she says anxiously, “and all your apps are in the cloud, none downloaded”

“I don’t use them much,” I say, “I figured the thing was trying to save space.”

She looks anxious and pale, “love, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize,” she says as she stood up came over to me and hugged me as I was sitting.

“No big deal hun, I like that phone but I guess it’s time for an upgrade,” I hug her back and wipe the crumbs off my face. “I better get to work now, don’t want to be late” and get up.

Anne was holding me tight and crying, she kisses me, “I’m going to miss you,” she says.

“Awww, you are so cute love, I’ll miss you too but don’t worry, I’ll be home regular time, we have rumba class tonight,” I reminded her and kissed her back.

She waves to me as I unplugged the car and back out of the driveway. Anne isn’t usually that emotional, I wonder what made her so sad? I’ll have to have a talk with her tonight after class, I don’t want there to be misunderstandings between us.

As I got on 295, a police car comes up behind and flashes its lights motioning me to pull over. I have no idea why I’d get pulled over, but I comply.

“Hello Officer, can I help you?” I say, as the officer approached, trying to sound as not guilty as I am.

He held out what looked like a large tablet in front of him and tapped on it.

“Derek Hanover, please shut off the vehicle and step out,” he said.

I try to speak but I cannot.

I open the door, step out and close the door.

“Please follow me sir,” the officer says as he gestures for me to follow him. We both stand at the back of my car as a large dark blue van pulls up.

The van’s passenger door opens and a young black woman with a kind face gets out, tablet in hand.

“Hello Mr. Hanover, I’m so pleased to help you today,” she says in a low preoccupied monotone.

I can’t move and I can’t speak.

She taps on the tablet and smiles.

“This won’t take long sir, please wait here”, she says.

I can’t move, but I’m conscious of the cars whooshing past, the clouds in the distance – looks like it might rain – I should call Anne and ask her to bring an umbrella to class – when I see the young woman come back, a man walking stiffly behind her.

He looks familiar.

It’s like looking in a mirror, but not really.

He has gray hair and wrinkles around his eyes.

The woman taps on the tablet.

I am now looking at myself looking at myself looking at myself.

I’m in two places at once, how can this be?

Suddenly, that feeling is over and I find myself following the young woman to the van, the door slides open and I climb into the captain’s chair in the back and remember to buckle the seatbelt.

The kind woman turns and smiles at me.

“May I ask a question?” I ask.

“Of course,” she says looking surprised.

“Where are you taking me?”

She smiles kindly and replies, “why Mr. Hanover, you are going home.”