I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.

I look after those who look after me." He smacks his lips, stares at me, and adds, "I also look after those who don't." - Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants)

Although, pretending not to notice is almost worse than noticing.

I have to convince myself that this is not a pointless life, even the body is telling me so.

Afterward, I curl around her. We lie in silence until darkness falls, and then, haltingly, she begins to talk...She speaks without need or even room for response, so I simply hold her and stroke her hair. She talks of the pain, grief, and horror of the past four years; of learning to cope with being the wife of a man so violent and unpredictable his touch made her skin crawl and of thinking, until quite recently, that she'd finally managed to do that. And then, finally, of how my appearance had forced her to realize she hadn't learned to cope at all.

I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.

Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.