Voices
JOANNA
ZELMAN
GETTY IMAGES/VETTA
What You
Don’t Write
in Postcards
D
EEP INSIDE TRAVELERS lies a dark secret that you
don’t write about in postcards. ¶ It presents itself innocently enough, just a twinge as you’re walking a foreign street, a slight ache that’s probably just a little fatigue or hunger or maybe sun poisoning? ¶ You check
yourself like you’d check a baby: Are you tired? No,
you just finished your second café latte (you would
have preferred plain coffee with milk, but can’t figure
out how to order it). You’re not hungry and you’ve
been walking in the shade. Could you be — no, you
won’t even let the word slip into your frontal lobe, because once it has, like a couchsurfing friend, there’s no
way to know when it will leave. ¶ Too late. You were
distracting yourself by snapping photos of funky trees,
and tricked your hands but not your gut.
HUFFINGTON
10.13.13