Oblivion: Stories

Psychologists, I recollected, have ascertained that the comparative inferiority of women in contexts described as purely intellectual, is attributable to the greater discouragement and repression of their curiosity when children. “Thank you, Sally. But I’m quite happy here, you know.” “You’re not. Are you, Mel?” “No. I’m not.” “Well then?” One day

of cruelty and paperwork to undo that just because you didn’t know you wouldn’t want it once you had it.” “Only drunk people talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” Seth said. I ignored him. This was who Seth was going to marry. But

“I said, ‘If the birds had such kinship that when one of them died, so did the other one, then what did the second firebird lose? Is there a third thing in this world, at least as powerful as Life and Death?’ ” Smithy sighed and rolled his eyes. “I know where this one’s going.” Mara paid no attention to him. She waved at him to hush. “What was it?”

Parents, especially those as distracted as her father, desperately needed things to run smoothly and were so inclined to believe the system they had created was working fine that they assumed a normality even when surrounded by clues to the contrary.