She Didn't Love Him And He Didn't

After Memory Keepers Daughter, It Took Me A Few Months To Shut Out The World. I Really Had To Turn Off The Internet And Sort Of Cloister Myself Away From The World Again And Sink Into That Psychic Space To Write Again.

This Was Her Life. Not The Life She Had Once Dreamed Of, Not A Life Her Younger Self Would Ever Have Imagined Or Desired, But The Life She Was Living, With All Its Complexities. This Was Her Life, Built With Care And Attention, And It Was Good.

This Is What He Knew That Paul Didn't: The World Was Precarious And Sometimes Cruel. He'd Had To Fight Hard To Achieve What Paul Simply Took For Granted.

Lately, The World Felt Fragile, Like A Blown Egg, As If It Might Shatter Beneath A Careless Touch.

He Could Hardly Imagine Anymore What His Life Would Be Without The Weight Of His Hidden Knowledge. He'd Come To Think Of It As A Kind Of Penance. It Was Self-destructive, He Could See That, But That Was The Way Things Were. People Smoked, They Jumped Out Of Airplanes, They Drank Too Much And Got Into Their Cars And Drove Without Seat Belts.