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Speaker 1: Welcome to the ten Minute Storyteller. That's me Bill Simpson,

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Speaker 1: your host, narrator and author. We hear at the ten

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Speaker 1: minute Storyteller endeavor to entertain you with tall tales or

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Speaker 1: rendered swiftly and with the utmost empathy. We pledge to

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Speaker 1: pack as much entertainment, emotion, and exploration into the human

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Speaker 1: condition as ten minutes will permit mini novels on steroids.

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Speaker 1: This week we meet Noah. Noah has known loneliness, been

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Speaker 1: well acquainted with it. Knew it as a kid when

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Speaker 1: his older sibs left the nest, knew it in college

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Speaker 1: freshman year without a bud in sight. But he definitely

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Speaker 1: didn't expect to experience the emotion now, not now, as

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Speaker 1: a middle aged guy with a wife and three daughters,

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Speaker 1: a crazy, chaotic life, busy, busy all the time. But

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Speaker 1: here she blows that old foe, loneliness roiling through his

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Speaker 1: head at three o'clock in the morning, the loneliest place

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Speaker 1: on earth. Hell. He'd been lonely in his life. Here

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Speaker 1: and there he had an acquaintance, if not a friendship,

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Speaker 1: with the emotion. But now, well, these days, these days,

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Speaker 1: it seems like loneliness is his closest confidant. Probably Noah

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Speaker 1: first felt loneliness as a kid, after all his older

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Speaker 1: siblings grew up and moved out. One day, the big

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Speaker 1: old house alive with chaos and bruising, physical exertions, wrestling

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Speaker 1: matches on the living room floor, arguments with his bossy sisters,

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Speaker 1: and the next day all quiet on the western front,

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Speaker 1: dead quiet, just his lame parents and the old hound.

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Speaker 1: And then that first year at state, thirty thousand students

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Speaker 1: and he didn't know a single one of them, thought

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Speaker 1: it would be cool to go most of the way

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Speaker 1: across the country to drink and smoke weed and chase

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Speaker 1: girls and okay, maybe do a little studying here and there.

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Speaker 1: And it had been cool, very cool eventually, but not

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Speaker 1: at first, not that first year. That first year had

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Speaker 1: been the desolation blues. And then all those long, far

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Speaker 1: flung odysses to remote corners of the world, going just

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Speaker 1: to go, just to go, to look and smell and

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Speaker 1: listen to see what might happen. Places were not a

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Speaker 1: soul spoke a word of English, and the native tongues

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Speaker 1: sounded like two rocks rubbing together. Places where people looked

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Speaker 1: at him like they might at any moment either offer

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Speaker 1: him a meal or kick him in the balls. Tough

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Speaker 1: to say. Those had been some eye popping, mind altering,

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Speaker 1: god forsaken times, and so damn lonely on those two

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Speaker 1: soft beds in the middle of the night that he

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Speaker 1: just sometimes wanted to weep. But that was child's play

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Speaker 1: compared to this. This blows all that petty gloom and

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Speaker 1: doom from the past away, kicks it in the ass

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Speaker 1: and out the back door, down the wooden steps, and

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Speaker 1: out onto the weedy lawn. Noah married in his early

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Speaker 1: thirties a woman of the same age, a woman on

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Speaker 1: the edge of desperate for domesticity and especially children. There

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Speaker 1: was chemistry between them, mystery and hope and yearning, but

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Speaker 1: probably not the tenderness and affection for a long and

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Speaker 1: happy life together. But still away, like so many, they

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Speaker 1: ventured romance. Passion promises a big, gaudy regal wedding fit

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Speaker 1: for a princess, and in no time, because she did

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Speaker 1: not think there was any time to spare a daughter,

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Speaker 1: and then another daughter, and then a third daughter in

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Speaker 1: short order, a family. No time for him to catch

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Speaker 1: his breath, let alone experience even a smidgeon of loneliness.

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Speaker 1: Now always a touchy feely guy, a physical force in

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Speaker 1: need of a physical connection. Noah wallowed in the simple

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Speaker 1: joy of lying in bed with his girls, cuddling and

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Speaker 1: mauling them, smothering them from head to toe with hugs

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Speaker 1: and kisses. He stroked them and tickled them, rubbed their

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Speaker 1: little heads, and stroked their chubby little bellies. Infants and

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Speaker 1: toddlers crave physical attention the way smokers crave nicotine, the

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Speaker 1: way junkies crave smack. Noah satisfied these cravings by holding

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Speaker 1: and rocking his girls and sleeping with them all curled

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Speaker 1: up in his arms. So intense was his attachment to

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Speaker 1: these three little ladies that he failed to notice the

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Speaker 1: slipping away of the physical connection between himself and his bride.

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Speaker 1: Some of this loss was natural, as they both gave

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Speaker 1: so much to the young uns that little remained for

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Speaker 1: each other. Still, they should have paid attention, They should

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Speaker 1: have taken care. Noah had, from their first days together,

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Speaker 1: embraced his wife from behind each morning when he found

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Speaker 1: her in the bathroom or the kitchen, bent over the

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Speaker 1: sink or the coffee maker, a sweet, quick embrace, arms

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Speaker 1: wrapped around her chest, a few light kisses to the

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Speaker 1: back of her neck, a gentle push against her buttocks.

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Speaker 1: But then one morning, three hungry mouths to feed. She

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Speaker 1: gave a signal, discreet but manifest that this small offering

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Speaker 1: of affection was unwanted, undesired, assuming something had gone awry,

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Speaker 1: undoubtedly something of his own doing. Noah tried again the

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Speaker 1: next morning, and again she sent the signal, So we

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Speaker 1: tried again the next morning. He tried off and on

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Speaker 1: over the next few weeks, and then, uncertain and insecure

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Speaker 1: his feelings hurt, he stopped trying. He had his little girls,

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Speaker 1: after all. They smiled and giggled and looked absolutely delighted

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Speaker 1: every time he came close, every time he put his

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Speaker 1: big face on their bellies and blew loud, wet kisses.

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Speaker 1: And now he lies in bed in the dark and

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Speaker 1: remembers all those loud, wet kisses when the girls, still

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Speaker 1: young and unbound, accepted his love without reservation. He also

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Speaker 1: remembers that night they had the spat over something over nothing,

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Speaker 1: who can possibly remember. After the raised voices, they went silent.

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Speaker 1: A few minutes into this silence, she got up off

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Speaker 1: the couch. He assumed she was just going to the

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Speaker 1: bathroom or maybe into the kitchen to make tea. But

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Speaker 1: now she stayed in the kitchen for a minute or two,

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Speaker 1: then announced she was tired, exhausted, she needed to go

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Speaker 1: to bed. He did not stop her, He didn't say

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Speaker 1: a word. It was the first night since they'd got

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Speaker 1: married that they did not go to bed together, the

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Speaker 1: very first night. He tries to remember how many years ago.

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Speaker 1: That was, all of a sudden seven years at least,

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Speaker 1: maybe eight, even nine. A long time, A long, long time,

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the end, even if there is no end,

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Speaker 1: just desolation till death. Okay, he knows he's being a

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Speaker 1: bit dramatic, gloomy, the middle of a dark winter night,

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Speaker 1: after all, sound to sleep, dreaming sweet dreams one second,

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Speaker 1: wide awake and struggling with his demons, the next, mulling

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Speaker 1: over the damaged past, anticipating a fractured future. She went

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Speaker 1: to bed earlier and earlier. At first, She asked if

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Speaker 1: it was okay? Did he want her to stay up?

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Speaker 1: Did he mind? What was he supposed to say? What

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Speaker 1: was he supposed to say to that? Yeah, stay up,

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Speaker 1: this is our time together. The kids are finally asleep.

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Speaker 1: Is that what he was supposed to say, But no,

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Speaker 1: he didn't say that. He didn't say a word, He

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Speaker 1: just stewed. And so it became routine, their routine. She

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Speaker 1: went to bed alone, he went to bed alone. A

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Speaker 1: couple of hours later, she woke up alone. He woke

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Speaker 1: up alone an hour or so later. Before too long,

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Speaker 1: their older daughter went to bed later than her mother.

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Speaker 1: What he would sit on the couch and wonder night

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Speaker 1: after night did she think about up there all alone?

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Speaker 1: The years zipped by without answers or resolutions. Busy, busy

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Speaker 1: all the time, in search of in search of what. Happiness, stability,

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Speaker 1: intimacy faded into the great unknown, no longer even a

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Speaker 1: shadow on the wall. Okay, they still had sex, but

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Speaker 1: always in the middle of the day, when the kids

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Speaker 1: were at school, never at night. There was no connection

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Speaker 1: at night, no touching, no spooning, no caressing, no hand

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Speaker 1: holding in the dark. Nothing. It went on and on

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Speaker 1: and on this way, and continues to go on and

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Speaker 1: on and on this way until this day, until this night,

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Speaker 1: this long, lonely dark winter night. No touching, no spooning,

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Speaker 1: no caressing, no hand holding in the dark, no nothing.

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Speaker 1: It would have been so easy to fix, so easy

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Speaker 1: for either of them to reach across the abyss. But no,

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Speaker 1: too stubborn, too proud, too human humans, for God's sake,

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Speaker 1: the most pitiful of all the species, and their bed,

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Speaker 1: their marital bed, The Loneliest Place on Earth. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to this original audio presentation of The Loneliest Place

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Speaker 1: on Earth, narrated by the author. If you enjoy today's story,

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Speaker 1: please take a few seconds to rate, review, and subscribe

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Speaker 1: to this podcast, and then go to Thomas William Simpson

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Speaker 1: dot com for additional information about the author and to

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Speaker 1: view his extensive canon. The Ten Minute Storyteller is produced

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Speaker 1: by Andrew Plaglici and Josh Colotney and as part of

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Duran Podcast Network in partnership with Iheartproductions. Until

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Speaker 1: next time, this is Bill Simpson, your ten Minute Storyteller,