The Unknown Beloved

by Amy Harmon

“Governments are good at that. They thought they could squeeze the wealthy for more. They squeezed too hard, and the wealthy went elsewhere. There’s always a balance.

“Humans are complex creatures. We want to belong, but we can’t stand to be the same. How in the world do you force equity on humankind, when we try at every turn to differentiate ourselves from each other?

He always expected the worst. He planned for it. For that reason, he was always the most capable guy in the room and the most unassuming. He did not look on the bright side, because in his experience, there wasn’t one. You could always make the best of things, but most of the time, that wasn’t saying much. He was actually comforted by bad news, because he could go about making things better.