Michael Malone - Weebly

doing anything but what he seemed to be doing, writing
postcards? Why should she be so overwhelmed by
realities that were not real to other people, that other
people at least appeared not to notice? Always since
her childhood there had been this chasm between her
and others, her sense that they were feeling more (hurt
or anger or shame or torment) than they either actually
did feel or than they would admit to; this sense of a
wavery unreality somewhere in herself or across the
chasm where everyone else seemed to be standing in
easy conversation as if they and the world were not
mad at all.
The boy who had come just now to collect Mr.
Smalter's mail, was there hidden in his eyes, along with
a new sadness, a new anger at her, a relationship to her
that had not been there when he had said hello a few
days earlier? How could she know such things? Why
should she have to? At last Mr. Barnum was turning to
leave. Sarah MacDermott certainly wouldn't have been
intimidated by the man.
Did that mean there was no menace? Judith could
never be certain if she misread the rest of the world, or