O, E, R.
LOVER, I type. As in, it’s been months since I’ve had one.
Aha! The L and V are gray, but the O, E, and R are green.
How about... MOVER. No, wait, I already know there’s no V. MOWER? Like a lawn mower?
I type it in.
Crap. Crap, crap, crap. It’s still wrong—and now I’ve only got one guess left.
_ O _ E R
Why are there so many words that could fit? POWER? POKER? No, those don’t work. There’s no P or W. COVER? HOVER? No, there’s no V.
C’mon, brain.Think.
I close the app for a moment and try to let my brain wander. I check my email (nothing), my bank account (ha), the new dating app I’m trying out.
Oh! There’s a message.
I open it with a bit of trepidation. The thing about PEI is, it’s really idyllic and beautiful but the population is only, like, 150,000, and I’m pretty sure 80 percent of them are above sixty. So trying to use a dating app here is a bit risky. The last few guys who messaged me were in their fifties, which, like... maybe they were really lovely, and I’m sure some people don’t mind a bit of an age gap, but my rule is, if you’re closer to my parents’ age than to my age, I’m going to have to politely pass.
But this guy, the one who sent the message, he looks quite young! I scroll through his profile. He’s named Arjun, he’s twenty-nine, he works as an engineer in Charlottetown... his favorite movie isDie Hard(that’s such a common answer I wonder if the app shouldn’t start making it the default for guys), favorite musician is Drake (another answer that should be the default)... his profile picture is a little blurry, but he’s definitely cute, with short dark hair and a really friendly smile.
Best of all, his message isn’t anything cringey or creepy, it’s just normal.Hey, how’s it going?
With a pleasant flutter of nerves, I message back. And by the time I get my second cup of coffee, he’s answered!
We message back and forth a bit—the usual stuff, nice to meet you, how’s your day going—and I make him laugh (or at least, type “lol”) when I tell him how I thinkDie Hardshould be the default movie choice for guys on the app. We banter back and forth about movies for a while (he tells me he waffled betweenDie HardandThe Dark Knightfor his favorite movie, and I make an argument for whyA Knight’s Talewas actually Heath Ledger’s most iconic work) and within half an hour, we’ve set up a date for tomorrow night in Charlottetown.
I get dressed for work, singing cheerfully to myself and thinking I should do a Heath Ledger movie marathon sometime. I can watchA Knight’s Tale,10 Things I Hate About You,maybe evenThe Dark Knight,although I’m not really into superhero movies—
Hang on a second.
The Dark Knight.Heath Ledger.
JOKER.
I grab my phone, swipe open Wordle, type the letters in—and that’s it! JOKER! That’s the Wordle answer!
I do a little spinny dance in my bedroom. Three hundred and two days! Only sixty-three days until I hit a year!
I stop dancing abruptly. Actually, sixty-three still sounds like quite a lot of days. What if tomorrow is some really weird word, like ERGOT or CRAIC? If I lose out after three hundred and two days...
Well. Nothing will happen, I suppose.
But I’ll besuperdisappointed.
I grab my bag and head out to my car. My neighbor, Mrs. Finnamore, is watering her garden plants in rubber boots and a pink dressing gown.
“Morning, Mrs. Finnamore,” I call.
“Morning, dear,” she replies.
She’s so sweet, Mrs. Finnamore. She’s had me over for tea a few times since I moved here, and I try to keep an eye out for her in return. I think she forgets that she’s eighty-eight sometimes, and I’ll catch her trying to lift fifty-pound bags of gardening soil by herself or trying to clean out her gutters without anyone to hold the ladder steady.
“I’m going to the grocery store later,” I tell her. “Need me to pick anything up for you?”
