He envied Ira. There was a clarity, a certainty of purpose behind everything she said and did; it could only come from knowing your place in the world. Take away his degrees, his mark sheets and medals, take away the jobs he’d held along with the decades of accolades, take away his sexuality too for good measure, and he was left with no conception of who he was. At the same time, it was entirely possible that Ira believed that he was a sorted man. She might even see herself as the confused one, the one in tatters.
