Hillbilly Elegy

Ford’s Theatre. She had run after me,
worried about me being alone. I realized
then that I had a problem—that I must
confront whatever it was that had, for
generations, caused those in my family to
hurt those whom they loved. I
apologized profusely to Usha. I expected
her to tell me to go fuck myself, that it
would take days to make up for what I’d
done, that I was a terrible person. A
sincere apology is a surrender, and when
someone surrenders, you go in for the
kill. But Usha wasn’t interested in that.
She calmly told me through her tears that
it was never acceptable to run away, that
she was worried, and that I had to learn
how to talk to her. And then she gave me