Tell the Machine Goodnight

by Katie Williams

Because I know that when people comfort you, they’re really just comforting themselves.

But there is knowing something and then there is feeling it. For adults, these are two different things. For children, they are one.

Being home from college for the summer is like sleeping over at a friend’s house you’ve only ever visited in the afternoon. The furniture is familiar, but the light has gone funny on you.

Maybe it’s just that we’ve known each other the exact amount of time we’re supposed to know each other.

In this overcrowded, underwhelming world, any gesture, no matter how slight, expressing that one person recognizes another person is a nice thing indeed.