all grown up

“I always reel for a few days after I witness someone’s personal truth. I walk around feeling like I’m wearing their essence like a tight sweater. With Greta, it’s a wetsuit. It takes a week until I can finally peel her off me, but I wake up one morning, naked in my apartment, and it’s all me again, and she’s gone. No more Greta, I think. No more sick babies, no more sad brothers, no more lost mothers. They’re there and I’m here. I’m free. And then I buy a train ticket up north for Thanksgiving, because I miss them all so goddamn much, and if I don’t see them again soon, touch them, and talk to them, I’ll never survive this life.”

Recently finished Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up