Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story

The day before Aldo and Regan meet, Aldo sits and considers the problem of time travel while keeping his hands busy with an unlit joint. The narrative breaks occasionally to describe the wind blowing in the trees ahead or to allow for the interjection from one of the story’s many narrators. Aldo thinks about hexagons and how they’re so commonly found in nature, and he wonders if time may be shaped in a similar pattern. He bases his theory on the work of Kurt Gödel, a logician who proposed that time travel was theoretically possible because time was shaped by a series of “light cones” (11) perpetually moving toward the future. Aldo enjoys having a problem that may never be solved, and he has endless patience to consider it. His father, Masso, calls him to ask how his day is going and check in during his busy shift as a chef. Aldo’s mother left shortly after he was born. Masso helps Aldo cope by fantasizing with him about places they can travel together, and while Aldo appreciates the effort, he constantly tells his dad he doesn’t need to keep doing this.

Regan wakes up in her disorganized bedroom at 2:30 pm and is nearly late for work. Her boyfriend, Marc, stirs beside her. She volunteers as a docent at the Chicago Art Institute and lives off a trust fund. Her mother is critical of her choice to get an art degree, and Regan has tried to become an artist but can never create anything worthwhile. She looks at Marc and marvels that she goes home with him at all. He does cocaine and spends most of his time partying, but Regan craves any stimulus that masks the boredom in her life. When she suggests breaking up, Marc dismisses it, knowing she isn’t serious, and reminds her to take her medication. Before leaving, Regan quickly goes into the bathroom and masturbates, and then takes her pills and rushes out the door. At the museum, Regan gives a tour to an elderly couple and notices the man staring at her. She thinks about what it might be like to have sex with him but finds it too easy to be of interest. She points to an abstract work called Greyed Rainbow by Jackson Pollock and notes the many layers that used to create it.

Aldo is a teacher at the university, where he’s earning a PhD in theoretical mathematics. Although people are impressed by this, they don’t really understand what it means, and Aldo’s students dislike him, finding him far too complicated and lacking sympathy. He dislikes having discussions or being asked questions, preferring to simply lecture and leave. At home, Aldo lives a simple and predictable life of routine and has few possessions. One night, he goes to the roof and smokes a joint while considering the “industriousness and organization” (29) of bees, the hexagonal patterns they create, and how fast their wings beat.

Regan goes to see her court-appointed psychiatrist, who diagnosed her as having a mood disorder, and while Regan doesn’t mind her, she also doesn’t give her much information. When the psychiatrist asks about Marc, a narrator cuts in to explain that Marc and Regan met in a bar over a year ago, and their encounter quickly turned sexual. She says a few words to the psychiatrist, but thinks in detail about how Marc is a good fit for her because he always seems to match her moods and needs, and he doesn’t seem to mind her questionable past. When the psychiatrist asks about Regan’s family, Regan tells her they’re doing well, but thinks about how her sister recently invited her to their parents’ anniversary. Regan didn’t answer the phone. Her older sister, Madeline, receives all the praise and is a pediatric surgeon, so Regan is accustomed to living in her shadow. Regan thinks about how she wishes she could paint something and mentions out loud that she wants to attend art school, but the doctor doesn’t seem as interested in that. Regan feels like she’s living in a loop and is unaware that her life is about to change. Both Aldo and Regan often reflect on how moments in time relate to and cause each other, but while Regan finds the lack of answers unsettling, Aldo is comfortable with pondering and never knowing, until he meets her.

Regan and Aldo meet when Regan finds him sitting on the floor in the armory section of the museum. He’s vigorously sketching hexagons and appears lost in thought. Regan tries to tell him he can’t sit on the floor, but he disregards her warning, instead just looking at her and commenting that she doesn’t seem like a Charlotte. He tells her he’s trying to solve time travel, adding, “bees. Hexagons. Time” (43). Regan isn’t sure what Aldo is talking about but is intrigued by his overgrown, messy hair, his talent, and the fact that he appears to be a genius. Aldo explains that he’s interested in time travel because it’s a problem that takes a long time to solve, and matter-of-factly tells Regan she seems too young to be working as a docent. Regan looks at Aldo and thinks about what it might be like to paint him. He decides to leave after she mentions that it’s been three years since she was arrested for counterfeit and theft. Saying little more, he departs, and Regan feels like something has changed.

When his father calls again, Aldo is thinking about Regan and what timeline might have caused their lives to intersect. He felt that Regan had a certain elegance about her and that she seemed to reflect the world’s beauty. He thinks about what might have happened had he asked Regan out for coffee. Later that night, while Marc is doing cocaine in the bathroom, Regan looks online to see what she can find out about Aldo. She doesn’t find him on social media, but he has a listing on a professor rating site, where he has a 1.4/5 rating; his students seem to consider him strict and hard to follow. Regan finds it intriguing that Aldo is apparently so awful at his job. While reflecting on her curiosity about him, Regan realizes that she doesn’t want to leave Marc for another man, because her life with Marc is safe and free of responsibility, but she can’t stop herself from admitting that if Aldo spoke to her again, she wouldn’t resist his attention.