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Three days of photos
I still haven’t sorted the photos from the trip.
Three days, a little over two hundred.
Four of us, friends since high school, went to a town by the sea.
A trip we had been saying, for years, we would take someday.
On the first day, it was raining from the moment we reached the station.
The second day, mostly rain as well.
Four clear plastic umbrellas, lined up in a row.
A souvenir shop with its shutters down.
Stuffing newspaper into wet shoes at the entrance of the inn.
A waiting room where, as we waited for the bus, nobody said anything at all.
On the second night, we couldn’t go out anywhere.
We bought a deck of cards at the inn’s shop and played daifugo in our room.
We argued a little over house rules.
At the end, someone with no playable card laid one down anyway, with total confidence.
All four of us laughed until we could hardly breathe.
There isn’t a single photo of that night.
Only on the third morning did it clear.
Before checking out, the four of us walked down to the beach.
In every photo, the sea is bright.
On the train home, someone said,
“That was a good trip.”
Everyone nodded.
I found I was nodding too.
Our group chat is filled with photos of the beach.
The two days of rain were never posted anywhere.
A length that doesn’t count
There is a study in which people undergoing colonoscopy were randomly divided into two groups.
For one group, a little time was added at the end of the procedure.
Instead of withdrawing the instrument right away, it was left in place for a short while.
The discomfort at the very end becomes milder, but the procedure itself grows longer.
Even so, it is reported that the people given the extra time looked back on the procedure as a whole as slightly less unpleasant.
There is also an analysis that gathered and re-examined the results of a little over a hundred and seventy similar studies.
When people look back on an experience, the most intense moment and the final moment tend to shape their impression of the whole.
How long it lasted, it is reported, did not make much difference.
It isn’t that I’ve forgotten the two days of rain.
I remember how cold the umbrella handle was, and how loudly the clock ticked in the waiting room.
If someone asked for the most intense part, I would probably think of that night with the cards.
And then, the bright beach.
But when I tried to sum up the trip in a word, the long rain in between had not been counted.
Did I not count it, or could I not?
Perhaps it was neither.
Ten minutes before closing
The next week, after work, I shot pool with one of the friends from the trip.
Nine-ball, for two hours.
Hardly anything went in.
My friend didn’t fare much better.
Just once, my friend sank the nine and took a rack.
After that, neither of us could string together the next shot.
Ten minutes before closing, one of the staff comes over.
“Nearly closing time. Last rack, please.”
My friend adjusts their grip on the cue.
“Let’s sink one before we go.”
My friend missed.
So did I.
“Okay, just one more.”
Another miss.
The cue ball comes to rest in the middle of the table.
My turn, a miss as well.
At the far tables, the staff have already begun pulling on the covers.
My friend settles into the stance once more.
This time the object ball rolls slowly and drops into the corner pocket.
My friend laughs out loud.
Putting the cue back in its case, my friend says,
“That was fun today.”
For most of those two hours, we had been missing.
My own last shot is still a miss.
I nodded.
The name of the album
At home, I make a photo album.
For the cover, I choose one from the beach.
I put in all the photos from the two days of rain, too.
Four umbrellas. Shoes stuffed with newspaper. A waiting room where nobody is talking.
In the box for the name, I type:
Only the last morning was clear.
I set my phone face down and turn off the light.
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References
- Redelmeier, D. A., Katz, J. & Kahneman, D. (2003). Memories of colonoscopy: a randomized trial. Pain, 104(1-2), 187-194. doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(03)00003-4
- Alaybek, B., Dalal, R. S., Fyffe, S., Aitken, J. A., Zhou, Y., Qu, X., Roman, A. & Baines, J. I. (2022). All’s well that ends (and peaks) well? A meta-analysis of the peak-end rule and duration neglect. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 170, 104149. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104149
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