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surprise visit (two month old story)

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2013.01.23

At the beginning of December, I had some fun taking The Girl to visit her mum. Mari was in the bathroom with the door open, so I crawled to the top of the short flight of stairs there and set The Girl so that she would be visible from within the bathroom while I couldn't be seen. It worked too well, in the end.

The Girl played it perfectly, gravely staring up at her mum, and giving her little leg a kick as if she were stepping out into view. She even put a hand up on the doorway as an adult might. Without smiling, she stared up at Mari.

And Mari made a worried sound. "Soooo creepy!" she told me.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force