18

He had avoided many important points about his life, not only because he didn't want to talk about them with anyone, but because talking about it, was like reliving it, like talking about his father's abandonment, about his problems with alcohol and with his own mind, about his suicide attempts when he was a teenager.... he didn't think any of that was necessary to say, so with a lump in his throat, he had confined himself to telling Amelia that he had been married and that his wife had died in childbirth; all of Amelia's grumpiness had vanished completely, giving way to a face full of pity, because although she assumed he was a widower, from a few conversations she had overheard, it must have been very raw to lose the one you love while giving birth to your child, that's why Amelia had insisted that they change the subject, that she had enough. That she doubted her grandfather would want to talk about his grandson's dead wife.

"Well... I think that's the most likely thing my grandfat