Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

by Rivka Galchen

“The voting is silly,” I said. “You can’t discover what’s true based on how many people think it’s true.”

Being alive at my age is like being woken from a grave and walking the earth to see the alien world of my descendants.

I’m always polite to them, Greta. You’re right that we have to see the good in people, at least in people who have power over us and who will be angry if we see them in another way.

“I’m fond of you, Simon,” she said. “I can see that you want me to be angry with you, but I can’t do it. You have love in your heart. You’ve been a friend to me. In the ways that were available to you. You’re not on trial.