"I suppose I could try to elicit clues in a roundabout way."
Jerusalem, March 21 - Confusion and apprehension seized a local husband today following his realization that he could not remember the exchange in which he and his spouse had just engaged, and that by absentmindedly signaling assent to her statements, he dug a whole from which he cannot escape unscathed: either ask her to repeat what she said - that he had already accepted, implying he had listened and considered it - and admit he had tuned her out, risking her wrath, or hope to accomplish whatever it was he had promised to accomplish and thus out himself in danger of failing to uphold whatever commitments he made during the forgotten exchange, risking her wrath.
Dan Segal, 40, told reporters Monday that his conversation with his wife Adi began well, but, coming as it did in the midst of another task, his attention never completed the shift and his mind kept returning to the previous task and blocking him from proper devotion to hearing enough of what she said to get at least the gist of it. At the same time, his desire to avoid inflaming her impatience with yet another instance of not having his full attention when addressing him compelled him to feign such attention and get out of the exchange as quickly as possible, to avoid any unpleasantness, the probability of which increases as such a conversation continues.
" I just... I know I nodded my head emphatically at something she said, and my gut tells me that was the right gesture," he recalled, clenching and unclenching his fists in anxiety. "But then she proceeded to outline a course of action, and I get the sense it wasn't just her intention, but it involved me, too, and that's the part I can't remember at all. Am I supposed to clear my schedule for something? Go out and buy something? Make an appointment? This is eating at me."
"I can't just ask her," he continued, the pace of the fist-movement increasing. "She hates when I only pretend to listen, and that would be an admission I did exactly that. Asking her would cause all sorts of trouble. I suppose I could try to elicit clues in a roundabout way. But that might also take too long and I'll get yelled at for 'forgetting' to do what I promised to do when the time was right."
"Maybe I'll just pretend the whole conversation never happened and just play clueless," he added, his hands relaxing somewhat. "Lots of my problems go away or solve themselves when I just ignore them. Maybe this is one of them."