No that isn't it. I really believe she thinks she's being helpful. The only problem is that I'm a grown woman and it really isn't any of her business how I feel about anything or anyone when it isn't related to work. By Tony, do you mean Tony Stark? I've never met him, but he seems like quite a character. [Also, the General hates him, so she's inclined to at least give him an inch. Very subtle prompting: what the fuck happened with him and with everything?]
I should have just said what I meant. I meant that it's nice to see you as you are now. There was a time I thought I would never get to see you grow old. Seeing you age into a silver fox is, in comparison, acceptable. (I'm teasing again.) I'm nearing my fifties too. It's almost time to make a large irresponsible purchase.
So it's been decades since I spent my years living out of boxes, moving all the time from state to state, but I remember that towards the end I stopped making friends. Or, I made friends but stopped letting them in. I didn't really see the point, until college, and by then, I was out of practice. It's not the same situation and it's hypocritical of me, but I think this is the sort of difficult worth pushing through. Leave a door for people, if you can. Growing numb to other people doesn't really protect you from them. Am I pulling a Quinn here? You can say so, and I'll get off your back about this.
I'd like to think I was being honest when I said I never want to hurt you, even if that means... not writing so often? At all? I don't really want to test it, because I'm really starting to suspect it's not true. I enclosed a picture - I don't really think it looks like me. You can be depressing. You don't have to apologize when your letters aren't happy and you don't have to smile in your pictures for me, although I think you should do it for the chemical benefits. I know you're not really happy. I know I'm just projecting. It's good just to know how you are, even if the answer is a minimal "alive".
Betty
[There's a photo of Betty with a pixie cut standing a little awkwardly outside what is probably the hairdresser's. Her smile is the sort of stiff where you've held it for too long. She's dressed pretty much the way she's always dressed, low-cut semi-formal blouse and her mother's necklace, some kind of cardigan thrown over one arm. There's a partial reflection in the glass behind her of the student holding the cellphone camera.]
no subject
I should have just said what I meant. I meant that it's nice to see you as you are now. There was a time I thought I would never get to see you grow old. Seeing you age into a silver fox is, in comparison, acceptable. (I'm teasing again.) I'm nearing my fifties too. It's almost time to make a large irresponsible purchase.
So it's been decades since I spent my years living out of boxes, moving all the time from state to state, but I remember that towards the end I stopped making friends. Or, I made friends but stopped letting them in. I didn't really see the point, until college, and by then, I was out of practice. It's not the same situation and it's hypocritical of me, but I think this is the sort of difficult worth pushing through. Leave a door for people, if you can. Growing numb to other people doesn't really protect you from them. Am I pulling a Quinn here? You can say so, and I'll get off your back about this.
I'd like to think I was being honest when I said I never want to hurt you, even if that means... not writing so often? At all? I don't really want to test it, because I'm really starting to suspect it's not true. I enclosed a picture - I don't really think it looks like me. You can be depressing. You don't have to apologize when your letters aren't happy and you don't have to smile in your pictures for me, although I think you should do it for the chemical benefits. I know you're not really happy. I know I'm just projecting. It's good just to know how you are, even if the answer is a minimal "alive".
Betty
[There's a photo of Betty with a pixie cut standing a little awkwardly outside what is probably the hairdresser's. Her smile is the sort of stiff where you've held it for too long. She's dressed pretty much the way she's always dressed, low-cut semi-formal blouse and her mother's necklace, some kind of cardigan thrown over one arm. There's a partial reflection in the glass behind her of the student holding the cellphone camera.]