Did You Miss Me?

I've spent several sleepless nights with one phrase in my mind: Did you miss me?

The question is one that people ask with sarcasm and with hope. Usually the reply is anticipated, otherwise one would not ask.

The joke, the humor, is in the response.

Giles asks the question of Turner. Like in Molly Bloom's monologue in the last chapter of Ulysses, the real answer is yes, yes, yes, but decorum calls for a shrug and feigned indifference: Of course not, are you mad, are you deluded?

To miss is to care, to care is to hope, to hope is to bare your soul.

So the only answer is: Not at all. Not at all.

Amy