good sh*t

At twelve, she had already discovered the empty spaces that gathered between people.

“Mom. You taught me that I don’t have to have dreams. I can have goals.”

“I can smell that kind of ambition. It’s not about making the world better, it’s about using marvelous potential and intelligence to . . .” She paused to think. “To feel like they matter. I won’t work with people like that, because if they don’t think they matter despite being some of the most successful, important, influential people on earth, wha

"Our reality isn’t about what’s real, it’s about what we pay attention to.”

But lately that kind of intimacy felt impossible. She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, or when, but distance seemed to be spreading between them like spilled ink, staining everything.

“It won't be easy," she said. "You know Meredith likes everything in its place. She'll want you here."

The smile he gave her was so sad and sloppy it broke her heart.

"You... hate easy."

"I do," she said quietly, stung by the sudden thought that without him, no one would know her that well.

And Vera understands. It is time for her to quit marking time and start doing something with it.

Maybe she'd thought time was more elastic, or love more forgiving.

How was it that her whole life could be distilled down to that simple truth? Words mattered. Her life had been defined by things said and unsaid, and now her marriage was being undermined by silence.