She opened the birthday card and read it. But I’m not that old, she told him. And he took the card and ripped it up. It was a joke, he said.

A giraffe waltzes down the street. He says, Did you see that? She says, Don’t be silly. And the dominant conversation of their lives is set.

He turns the TV on and says, Let’s go to Alaska, and she says, OK! and he looks at her shocked and says, When did you start listening to me?