You Should Have Left

by Daniel Kehlmann

Before everything could get better yesterday, the kid had to be put to bed. Reconciliation is never conceivable as long as the kid is awake.

your apartment and then my apartment and then yours again; everything as usual, everything as never.

But I didn’t want to be someone who can’t cope with everyday life. People have simply agreed that driving a car is something harmless.

Do you want to deny it? I shouted, and only when she looked at me seriously and calmly and said that she didn’t want to deny it at all did I realize how much I had hoped she would.