Dr. Max Hastings
BEFORE
“Is it bad?”
“No.”
“Did I hurt you?” she asked. Or maybe she said, “Does it hurt?” I can’t recall which. Either way, it never occurred to me to lie. I shook my head.
“Are you angry with me?”
“No.”
At the time, this was true. There in that hotel room, everything was true. My thoughts weren’t propelling me too far into the future. I wasn’t concerned that her questions might one day become an entity of their own. I wasn’t worried that this interaction might come to mean something very different in time. You see, I wasn’t bothered with needing to understand. I was, to put it another way, standing where my feet were planted.
everything“Are you sure?”
I’m fairly sure I hadn’t responded. The truth is, I was only half-listening. Warm heat, along with the sting tha
