A short story by Karl Minns:
Fed up with being set up on a succession of blind dates that went nowhere, Hal decided to change tack. “Mute dates?” asked his flat-mate. “No conversation”, explained Hal, “we communicate just with our souls”.
The first date was with Sheila. Things started well. They sat in silence for twenty minutes, whilst their souls exchanged pleasantries: joking about the unseasonably foul weather and the ongoing pains of the dating game in London. Then, after twenty minutes, the silence began to dry up. Hal stuttered some words: “I…er…it’s…um”. Sheila did the same. The loss of the silence was excruciating. Hal felt himself blush. Had their souls so little to say to one another?
Hal tried opening his soul further, engaging Sheila in the source of his light, the one light that binds all humans together in unconditional, fearless empathy and love. Sheila’s soul rolled its eyes and suggested that the deepest resonance was, in fact, inspiration which was the root of the creation of the entire Universe, of which she, Hal and everyone on earth were star-shrapnel and echoes.
Hals soul disagreed, and argued that love WAS inspiration, since both of them came from a desire to communicate the fearless self. Sheila’s soul said; “Whatever” and then started glancing at the soul of the water in the bar.
Things got awkward and inevitably they both fell into conversations using their mouths. The conversations grew longer and Sheila made her excuses at 9:30, citing an early start to the morning. Hal didn’t protest and felt nothing but relief when he waved Sheila off at the cab rank.
