I See You

                “Hm, that’s new,” said Kyle.

                “What’s new,” asked Jennifer.

                “That humongous eyeball in the sky. I never noticed it before,” said Kyle. He scratched at his stomach as he slowly shook the sleep from his body.

               

                Jennifer casually looked up from her magazine and towards Kyle at the apartment window.

                “Oh yeah, that. Yeah. I guess it’s been there for a while. I dunno,” said Jennifer.

                “A while,” asked Kyle, “Like, what’s a while? Like weeks or days or hours?”

                Jennifer put her magazine down on the sofa as she stood and approached Kyle at the window.

                “Like, a while. I don’t know. It was just there one day. I thought you saw it,” said Jennifer.

                “Um, no. I definitely did not see the giant, human-looking eyeball in the sky,” said Kyle.   

                Kyle pressed his face into the window and looked up at the eyeball hovering in the blue sky. The eyeball shifted its gaze back and forth, up and down in quick, furtive glances. There were no giant eyelids though. Just one giant unblinking eyeball scanning over everything.

                “I’m really sure I would have noticed that if it was there yesterday,” said Kyle.

                “We never actually went out of the apartment yesterday,” said Jennifer.

                “Right. That’s right. We just stayed in our PJ’s, watched TV, ate a bunch of junk food and watched all our TV stories. So yeah. I wonder if it was there the day before then,” said Kyle.

                Jennifer shrugged and returned to the sofa and picked up her magazine. Kyle kept looking out the window at the big eyeball.

                “Do you think it’s watching us,” asked Kyle.

                “Do you think that we’re that important,” responded Jennifer without looking away from her magazine.

                “I don’t mean us specifically, I me the general us, the royal We, us,” said Kyle.

                “Probably. What else do eyeballs do,” asked Jennifer.

                Kyle stepped back from the window, wiped at the small grease mark his nose left on the glass, and looked down at the sidewalks below. There weren’t many people out for such a nice day.

                “Was there anything on the news about the big eyeball,” asked Kyle.

                “We watched streaming shows all day yesterday so we never watched any news,” said Jennifer.

                Kyle could hear a police siren wailing in the distance, getting closer to the neighborhood, but still it was faint, maybe echoing in the opposite direction.

                “We should probably turn the News on this morning don’t you think,” said Kyle.

                “Probably,” said Jennifer.

                Jennifer tossed her magazine onto the coffee table and grabbed the remote control. She turned the TV on. The TV came on in the middle of an episode of one of the Celebrity Housewives marathons that was always on. Jennifer didn’t change the channel but stopped to watch as Madeline, the main Celebrity Housewife, described her current gardening dilemma and the upcoming birthday party for her children, Bricedon and twin sister Cadillacy, and if they were ever going to possibly complete the Ivy Walkway in time for the prince and princess parade.

                “Jennifer, c’mon. The news,” said Kyle.

                “I haven’t seen this one,” said Jennifer, “No wait. I have. They get it done in like, the nick of time. It was a whole lot of panic over nothing.”

                “Isn’t it always,” asked Kyle.

                “You just don’t get it. It’s about the personalities,” said Jennifer.

                “Yeah, and here I thought TV shows were supposed to be about substance rather than personalities,” said Kyle.

                “Okay grandpa,” said Jennifer.

                Kyle sat on the sofa next to Jennifer and playfully nudged her with his elbow. She nudged him back. It was their thing. The gentle playful nudges. Jennifer flipped the channel to the Cable news station. It was a commercial for some sort of gastric blockage medication with two older people playing tennis, then riding bikes, then hugging a puppy and laughing about it all with each other.

                “Ugh. Every time we flip to the news it’s some commercial for something terrible about getting old,” said Kyle.

                “Because old people watch the news,” said Jennifer.

                “You’re old,” teased Kyle.

                “Shut up grandpa,” said Jennifer.

                Kyle grabbed after Jennifer’s waist and started pulling him toward her on the sofa as she feigned a struggle.

                “Give Grampa a kiss. Give us a kiss, Mwah, mwah, mwah,” played Kyle.

                “Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew,” protested Jennifer and she playfully kicked and squirmed.

                “Let me take my teeth out so I can make sure this is a good old wet kiss,” said Kyle.

                He placed a sloppy wet kiss on Jennifer’s cheek as she laughed. He added a quick raspberry to seal the deal.

                “You’re a dork,” said Jennifer as she wiped her cheek.

                “I’m your dork baby,” said Kyle.

                The news finally came on after two more commercials about senior dating and something about fish oils. The commentator behind the news desk, animal name somebody, said that the giant eyeball in the sky did not appear to be a threat, but government officials were, “keeping a close eye on the situation”.  Apparently, the eye appeared over the East coast of Great Britan this morning and has been following the Sun westerly. There have been some riots, looting, murders, fires, and general chaos through the world cities but oddly enough most American cities haven’t changed much. The commentator cited the fact that everyone was just too exhausted at this point to care about one more thing, and that frankly, the eye didn’t seem all that interested either.

                “See, nothing to worry about,” said Jennifer.

                “Yeah, just a whole lot of nothing,” said Kyle.

                Kyle took the remote and flipped through the channels on the television.

                “Go back to Celebrity Housewife,” said Jennifer.

               

                Kyle sighed and changed the channel back to the celebrity Housewife marathon, wherein Madeline was still yelling at the gardeners in stilted English as she appeared to believe that yelling English at those who do not speak it will somehow magically teach them to understand it.

                “You’re so lucky I love you,” said Kyle.

                “No. You’re lucky I love you,” said Jennifer.

                “Yup,” said Kyle and he smiled at her.

                He put his arm around Jennifer and leaned back with her on the sofa as the censors bleeped out most of Madeline’s diatribe and police sirens wailed outside the apartment windows.