Vision of Another Place and Time

[ThePaladin]

A few years back, spouse and I were driving by one of the new subdivisions that are spouting up like fungus in our area. There was one house with a balcony off one of the upstairs bedrooms and we always laughed about the homeowners enjoying the beautiful view of a busy road from their balcony. Then one day, that house had fully grown trees between the balcony and the fence, blocking the view of the road. I'm not talking small trees, I'm talking good-sized trees that looked like they had been planted for years. Surprised, I asked the spouse when those trees went in, because they hadn't been there a few days earlier and he traveled the road to and from work daily. A long time, he said. How long? I wanted to know. Gosh, he couldn't pin down a timeframe for how long but he knew they'd been there for at least several months. How is that possible? I wanted to know, since the development had just opened. He wanted to know what I was talking about, the development had been open for a couple years. We argued goodnaturedly all the way down the road about how long the development had been open. I said a few months, he swore it was a few years.

It didn't dawn on me until much later that I'd jumped a timeline at some point. Now I pay attention when I get that gut-dropping feeling.