This was a very interesting story to me, and it took me a couple of times reading it to understand it more fully, although I am sure I am still a long way off. The story is bout a couple, Annie and Ben, who are dealing with a disease of sorts that Ben has. Annie seems to be a person who relies on logic more than feelings, while Ben is a dreamer who thinks deeply about things, maybe too deeply for his own good. The first time they had sex, Annie was "concentrating really hard on letting go", which makes me feel like she has a hard time being in the moment. At one point, Ben takes her outside to look at stars in the middle of the night telling her "there is no space for anything but dreaming." Ben felt as if humans were getting too smart, and that the "world dries up and dies when there's too much thought and not enough heart." Ben was a sad man, and Annie loved that about him.
One night Annie made love to Ben, and told him "we're not thinking at all", at which point he holds her close and the two go outside, where ben tells her that he hates talking and would like to stare into her eyes and communicate that way. After that he tells her that he wants to sleep outside and upon returning to him in the morning, there is an Ape outside, and that Ape is Ben. He begins to deteriorate, moving further and further down the evolutionary timeline, from an Ape to a turtle and eventually a salamander. Annie sees a local biology teacher, who tells her Ben has about a year left, which she quickly sees is wrong and that he probably has a month. Annie takes care of Ben, and even kind of enjoys it at first, however when he becomes a Salamander she decides that she cannot see his decline anymore and eventually sets him afloat in the ocean, declaring that she will have to remember their past for the both of them. She keeps her phone number listed in the phone book, checks the news regularly, and even walks around their neighborhood at night hoping that he will one day return as his old self.
The devolution of Ben in this story, although kind of magical in the way that it happens to him, makes me think about people getting older and dealing with illnesses, specifically Alzheimers in this case, because as Ben devolves he is unable to communicate and remember things, which is why Annie feels like she must remember for the both of them. It makes me think about how as we get older a lot of pressure is put onto our spouses to take care of us as our health deteriorates. The professor in the story made me think of a doctor, who give their patients timelines of how much time they have left, although it is just an educated guess and often wrong in either direction. I am sure there are many more symbols in this story that I am missing, but on just reading it a couple of times this is what came to mind. This was a really sad story to me because of how much Annie loved Ben, even with all of his faults, and how she was forced to watch this man that she loves so much deteriorate in front of her eyes before eventually letting him go. It made me think about my wife, and how one of us will eventually be in this same situation (although hopefully without actually devolving). this was a very interesting story and I really enjoyed reading it.
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