I looked at the phone in disbelief. Then I tried to explain.

“You ever get the feeling that nothing is real, that everything we see is just a thin veneer over something else. Empty space mostly. Physics proved that years ago, you can look it up anywhere. There is so much blank space inside us that we are all on the verge of falling into space forever. Thinking about it makes me nauseous. Everything barely holding together and spinning. Think about it. We are on the earth that spins, and the planets spin around the sun, the solar system is just one arm of the galaxy spinning in a tiny part of the universe. Can you feel all that spinning? I can. And it makes me sick. Traveling sometimes makes it better if it’s in short hops, no more than an hour or two. Long distance travel makes it worse and anything that separates me from the ground is right out. No planes or boats for me, thank you very much. That’s why I can’t come. Well that and the money.”

There was only stunned silence.

No one ever really understands.