Almost There Has Been Approved as a Location
Almost there is a location with no fixed address, recognized by both parties and contested by neither.
I.
"Almost there" is transmitted when the sender is still at home. This is known by both parties. This knowledge does not change the text, does not change the response, and does not change the behavior it describes. The system functions precisely because neither party requires accuracy.
II.
The text serves a social purpose distinct from its literal content. It signals arrival within a plausible timeframe. It gives the recipient something to do with their attention while the sender performs the final steps required to become "almost there" in a more literal sense.
These final steps typically include: locating keys, reconsidering a jacket, sending the text, and then beginning to leave.
III.
Under the governing rule, any arrival text fiction involving two people must preserve the appearance that neither person is keeping score.
Keeping score would require one party to say: you sent "almost there" eleven minutes before you arrived. This has never been said. It will not be said. Saying it would convert a courtesy ritual into a negotiation, and the ritual's value is precisely that it looks like neither.
IV.
The recipient has also sent "almost there" under identical conditions.
This is not hypocrisy. This is how the system works. Both parties maintain the fiction, and the fiction maintains a small social equilibrium that a more accurate description of each person's location would disturb.
V.
The text is sent. The sender leaves. Arrival occurs within a range that both parties experience as reasonable.
No record is kept.