Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

“The point is you’ll have gone and educated yourself. You’ll have seen a little of what things are like for other people and why they think the way they do. And you’ll meet people who have careers that we don’t even think of as careers.

“The thing is, Peter, grown-ups don’t know what they’re doing any better than kids do. That’s the truth.”

His teeth were sharp and stripped with brown and reminded Peter of a jackal.

Kate had to believe that knowing one’s child as a child meant always knowing what was most essential about them.

“We both know you only get mad when you know you’re wrong.”

“Not seeing me was her choice, not mine.” “Now it seems she’s making a different choice.” “So I should open my life to her? I’m almost forty years old. It’s been twenty-three years since I’ve seen her. Twenty-three years. And she’s had no interest in me or in us in all that time.”