Within Arm's Reach

by Ann Napolitano

Sometimes I envy Louis his family, which started out small and then disappeared. Other times I feel badly for his loss. But it is always clear that he has no idea what having a family really means. The ties that crisscross and bind and trip up my brothers and sisters and my mother and me are invisible pieces of thread to my husband. No matter how closely he looks, even when I push his nose right up against the glass, he does not see it. He does not understand.

BUT HE DOES but you'll never think he will and that's the PROBLEM YOU PEOPLE I SWEAR

it is odd to sit still in this room and get to know this one woman and this one family.

You're telling me