this is not the time
When Ana was thirteen, her mother told her that the one thing she
regretted no longer being able to do was visit her friends, and Ana, who
wanted nothign so much as to help her mother in that last year, told her
mother that she’d gladly visit her mother’s friends and announce her
intentions and condolences that she could not attend in person. They
agreed this was a good idea, and so Ana got gussied up in her impress teh
adults clothes and took the car around town, stopping often at convenience
stores to ask directions, until she visited all of her mother’s friends
and announced how she was dreadfully sorry that she couldn’t attend
herself but certainly wanted best wishes (and in one case a speedy
recovery). This is where Ana learned to put on her professional face,
friendly but formal, her voice a bit flat, her movements a bit slower than
usual. This is how she started talkig to me after I told her the thing I
promised myself I would never tell her, the thing about why I’ll never
have children and she hung up the phone and called back five minutes later
and announced that she was dreadfully sorry she had been so rude before,
and has the deepest sympathy for my situation.
(12:26.05.19.2005) [/scrytch] #