The Wanderers

by Meg Howrey

She might be able—just—to face being a mother, if she knew for sure that she was a real person. But not before.

Yoshi reminds himself that his attempts to meddle with Madoka’s emotions have always yielded poor results. He assures himself that what Madoka most desires when she is unhappy is space.

They were having emotions that weren’t quite the emotions they would be having. Which sort of robbed them of their current emotions, in a way. She should not have had two glasses

what does this mean?

Yes, Alexander would never have left Dmitri’s mother alone for such long periods of time, would not have assumed, over and over again, that she could handle everything, manage all situations, cope with any emergency. But the fact that his father had done so had resulted in his mother being perfectly competent and someone you could rely on. Now, Dmitri was not so sure. Now, if something happened, Alexander would probably rush in and say, “Oh, don’t worry, I will take care of it,” and his mother would stand there as if she had forgotten

interedting talking about being self sufficiebt

“Marriage is a mirror” was Madoka’s father’s advice to her on the day of her wedding. “Sometimes it is challenging, to see yourself in this way. It can be frightening. You must face these fears together.”

“When we eventually colonize Mars,” Boone Cross has said, “we need to do so as an enlightened species moving forward, not as panicked refugees clinging to survival by our fingernails.”

Yoshi is sorry that Helen did not have the same relationship to her husband’s words. This is probably why Helen’s voice is hearty and bluff sometimes: she had not known love.

It has been only three months since she’s seen him, not so terribly long, but just long enough that her sexual fantasies are once again about Yoshi rather than nameless/faceless characters.

do you fantasize about faceless anonymous people when youre with your husband all the tine?

takes no credit for the joy that Ilya feels but must accept all the blame for any suffering of Dmitri’s.

It was a thing to remember, though, that a man could not seduce a woman. You couldn’t be upset with a man, even a friend, if your wife slept with him. Yes, the man could say no, but everyone had a different idea of loyalty. You shouldn’t be upset with your wife either. Only blame yourself in these situations.

so it was no moral issue for them to have sex? just tough luck for alexander?

You want me to feel more. I want you to feel less. Which one of us is feeling the correct amount?

is this the big question among people?

it walks like a duck, but talks like something else, is it still a duck? Is it a bad duck? Does it have to be a bad duck? Can’t it be another creature altogether?

is she a bad mom? ciuld she have been an astronaut and still been a great mom?

one of yours. But, forgive me, I do not think this is true. I think we are mutually locked. Perhaps this is what it means to be married. Perhaps this is what it means to be married to me.