Dept. of Speculation

by Jenny Offill

The reason to have a home is to keep certain people in and everyone else out. A home has a perimeter. But sometimes our perimeter was breached by neighbors, by Girl Scouts, by Jehovah’s Witnesses. I never liked to hear the doorbell ring. None of the people I liked ever turned up that way.

I love to get together with friends but I hate drop ins. Probably because such visits generally come in the middle of the day when I am trying and failing to write. The pandemic means this is not a problem anymore. Now I am desperate to talk to anyone about anything.