I have spent so many months building up a cordial and indifferent front. I built a seawall out of a smile. I meant it to protect me, and it did. Too well, I think. Because the more distant you grow from everyone else, the stranger you become to yourself. It’s easier to be formal, yes; there’s a sanctuary in the pleases and thank-yous, a refuge in the customary. But you can’t live inside a smile.”
