In Tongues

by Thomas Grattan

Later, he looked back on this time as if he had caught a severe illness which left its mark on him for the rest of his life. —TOVE DITLEVSEN, “THE UMBRELLA”

When I was young, an overeager student teacher once gave us an assignment to discuss a superpower we wished we had. I wrote about being invisible. For days after, boys in my class bumped into me then said, with phlegmy bravado, “Didn’t see you there,” and I wished I’d been able to explain that to be invisible didn’t mean to disappear, but to have control over who might see me, and when and how.

A message from Dad about how, in that summer I’d stayed with him, he loved when we’d gone to church together. When people fell to their knees in praise, I saw that you were afraid. I kept telling you what was happening, but still you looked fearful. I hope you don’t feel afraid like that anymore. That you see new things and look at them with wonder.