He put the phone down as she turned.

And that’s when he knew.

That moment, that second, that grin on her face. It all culminated, a silent crash inside his mind that whispered in dark tones,

“This is not what you think…”

He found no comfort in it, only terror, for the voice wasn’t telling him that everything was okay. Just the opposite.

And he knew…knew that life as he knew it had been a charade. That all of the stuff – the errands and the projects at work and the coincidences in his life had been a stage play. That the world in which he lived was not good. It was bad. It was filled with things he did not an could not understand.

And suddenly that music that soothes us in our troubles changed somehow. As if the tinkling chimes of a music box had stayed the same but suddenly a low and dark minor chord was ringing underneat it, revealing that he was so deep inside he could never get out.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Honey,” she said, “This is not what you think.”