The Candid Life of Meena Dave

by Namrata Patel

The women of this building are in charge, the husbands superfluous. The husbands married into the history of EH but did not have the same care or responsibilities. The running and keeping of EH is for the women directly descended from the original engineers.

“You’re not afraid?” “Of pain? No. I am a good healer,” Odkell answered. “I have scars as my memories. To fear is to torture yourself.”

“The thing about the word regular is that the constant pattern can change,” Sam said. “Can be redefined based on circumstances.”

There is no order to life. While time is linear, we do not have to live within its confines. The second one: Expectations of how things must be are an anathema.

Aloneness was a choice, but loneliness felt different. A disconnection from others that felt more like a condition of how she lived her life.

Advice to a young person from an old person: Bravery isn’t in big battles; it is in small acts. Once you are over the age of 30 you can no longer blame the past or your parents for the way you are. Fix yourself, it’s within your control. There is always money in the banana stand. Sam has told me this is from a television program. What I infer from it is that subtext is often more telling than text.

Every adoption starts with a loss.

remember that before the pain, there had been joy.