Chapter 8: Division
By the fourth month the major assets had been identified, valued, and placed on a path toward division that favored neither spectacle nor delay.
The house remained mine through a buyout structured against other accounts. The truck, recovered and repaired of its underwater interval, remained his. Retirement accounts were equalized according to the numbers rather than according to anyone’s story about contribution or fault. I kept the security system. He kept the ability to describe the system as excessive in whatever future conversations he chose to have. The difference no longer required my participation.
May you like
Vanessa’s name surfaced only in the peripheral way of a neighborhood that had already consumed the interesting portion of the story and moved on to newer ones. Daniel’s household arrangements resolved themselves without reference to me. I received no further messages from either of them and sent none. The afternoon in the pool had been sufficient contact for a lifetime.
Work continued. Friends who had stayed at the correct distance remained. Friends who had required detailed emotional access in exchange for support drifted, and the drifting was allowed. I cooked for one without translating the act into a statement about independence. Independence was not a performance. It was the residual condition after every access that depended on trust had been revoked.
