Default

Default: the option which choosers end up with if they do not make an active choice.

At home, my default is my Phone. Or my Flone, as Sikhona calls it. I'm with my kids. Reading stories. Pushing them on the swing. Jumping on the trampatreen. 

And then I sneak it in. They're jumping on their own. Better check my phone. Do I have a new email? Probably not. As I just checked 4 minutes ago. But I pull the screen down anyway, like a crack addict. Waiting for the spinny timer thing to download the fix. Junk. Damn. Anything real? Anything where I'm Needed. 

I'll check my texts. Any new texts? Those will be important. Urgent even. Someone out there could be in trouble. And I'm ready. Available. To respond. Give that important answer. 

No texts. Ooh, better check Facebook. Which is like dirty crack. Like the stuff people spill on the floor of the party. But I'm going in anyway. Newsfeed, scroll down. Hmm. Ice bucket challenge. And another one. And... oh. More and more. Well, I'll check my FB messages. And so it goes, on and on.

And my Flone is my default. My go to. When I'm not paying attention to my family. My friends. My life. I have my IFlone. And I hate it.

I had no internet at family camp for a week this summer. And my default changed. I found a book. A novel. I actually found it at Zehrs in North Bay on the way to Temagami. Outlander. Adventure, swords, time travel, sex. Perfect. 

Little did I know that I'd bought the historic porn series Mary-Kate has been reading for years. I'd been avoiding it as I thought they were chick flick stories. That's not for me. I'm into real historic fiction. Manly fiction. Without sex. I guess. 

BUT. Since I found this particular book on my own. It was Allowed. 

And God darnit. It's good. I haven't read a book in years. Really read one. Got into the world. Inside it. So the characters become friends. Familiar, as if I know them. I inhabit them.

I want the book default. 

The time travel. The rich characters. The sex and swordplay. I need to cut myself off from the outside world. For a day a week. A time at night. I need to put my Flone away. Activate the Do Not Disturb. 

And get back to 17th Century Scotland where the characters live life to the fullest. As their life is their default. Or they're dead.