Classification of Borrowed Book Return as Normal Conduct

What Would Have Happened If

The book had been returned within two weeks.

Counterfactual Scenario A: Timely Return

The subject borrows a book. The subject reads the book, or at minimum places it in a visible location where it may eventually be read. Within fourteen days, the book is returned.

The exchange takes thirty seconds: hand the book over, express an opinion about the book, receive any response, conclude.

The book is returned. No apology precedes it. The discussion is about the book, not the circumstances of its return.

What Actually Happened

The book was borrowed in March.

Under the governing rule, a social inconvenience may continue indefinitely if ending it would require naming the inconvenience.

The inconvenience: the book has been in the subject's possession for seven months. This is now the first fact about the book. The book's content is the second fact.

A minor preference is left politely unstated. Each person begins adjusting behavior to avoid forcing the other person to state it. The lender has not asked for the book. The borrower has not mentioned the book. Both parties are aware of the book.

The arrangement becomes so stable that changing it would require a conversation everyone has spent months successfully avoiding.

The Return (October)

The book is returned. An apology is made. The apology takes longer than the book handoff.

The lender says it was no problem. This is understood by both parties as courtesy rather than information.

The discussion is about the apology, and then briefly about the book, and then about other things. The book is back.

Counterfactual Assessment

In Scenario A: the exchange was thirty seconds and primarily about the book.

In the actual scenario: the exchange was four minutes, primarily about the delay.

The book is the same book. Its journey home cost seven months of ambient awareness and one apology.