even thetans get the blues

Twice MELANIE BOYER writes about the time being "1:43 EST and 10:43 p.m. where I am," using repetition to emphasize the spatial and emotional distance separating her from her man. Ah, unless she's trying to tell us something else. It's all very sickly-sweet until the third time she uses the device, when she reveals her hand:

But right now, at 1:43 EST and 10:45 p.m. where I am. . . .

How great must one's emotional terror grow, how overpowering one's fear of being alone, until it manifests as something dark enough to override the laws of time and space?

Or is it all a ruse, M ALIEN ORB EYE?