The Far Field

by Madhuri Vijay

So, you see, there is nothing to be gained by pretending to a wisdom I do not possess.

He had the intelligent man’s faith in the weight of his own ideas, and the emotional man’s impatience with anyone who did not share them.

“Well, you do talk a lot,” she said thoughtfully. “But if you’re going to be working all day, I suppose I won’t have to listen to most of it.”

I tried to make sense of the two things together. My skin and this room. My skin in this room.

I realize that my parents, despite their drastically different personalities, were both essentially guarded and solitary people, who found it difficult to form true friendships, which would have required risk and revelation beyond what they were prepared to provide.