“Haunted wind chimes? First, it was the ripples on the water, then the stirring of leaves. What gives, Frank?” Frank looked uneasy. Being this far away from his apartment in the city was having an ill effect on him. Looking over at Sadie, he smiled. “It’s nothing, Babe. I’m just not used to being out in the country.”
She smiles. “Out in the country? This is Central Park in New York.
He grimaced. “Okay, I have a severe case of Acrophobia—fear of moving air and wind. It always makes me feel like I’ll be blown away, and I’ll be in a situation where I can’t touch the ground as I float out over the Hudson to New Jersey! Are you happy?” “Frank, why would I be happy that you have a serious problem. Is this why you work just two blocks from where you live?”
“Sadie, you have no idea how hard it is to travel on the subway where gusts of wind always blow through the tunnels or sit in the air conditioner draft in the one bar that’ll give me credit. I continually fear being blown away. Being in the vast openness like this makes it worse.”
“I’m sorry, Frank. I study psychology at Columbia, right? Well, you have Casadastraphobia, the fear of falling into the sky. And evidently, there is more than a touch of Agoraphobia too – fear of open places,” Frank looked closely at Sadie. An uncomfortable silence fell. Then he said, “I think this date was a bad idea. Before it, I only had one fear; thanks to you, I have three. The more I think of it, though, I worry now that I’ll develop a fourth, a fear of Psychologists, and a fifth to cover them all – Phobiophobia, a fear of phobias. “
He reached back, pulled up the hood of his hoodie, deployed his umbrella, and, facing into the breeze like a hurricane, carefully trudged back to his apartment. The night sky loomed so large above him.
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