“Cognitive Tourists” / Memorable Fancies #0129

It was such a wonderful trip, you know? We wanted to remember the place before it was spoiled by ordinary tourists yammering their civilized tongues. Yes, we had some language lessons, but we were still overwhelmed by the real thing. Imagine! names for five warmths of water, not just “warm”; the tense that means “maybe”; six grammatical genders even though they still have only the same old two sexes we have, ha ha.

In spite of the pills we’d brought, we were infected by the third day. We began to have thoughts impossible in our own language – thoughts that filled us with wonder – that raised questions about our lives.

Even now, back home, we still have occasional foreign thoughts, dangerous thoughts. But we should be completely cured in a few weeks, will learn not to say “our memories” of that place, but “our hallucinations.”