What does it mean when you say, I won’t tell? Does it mean I won’t tell for a short time but then tell anyway? Does it mean I won’t tell for a while and then when I decide it’s about time to tell someone I will pick the most inappropriate person to tell it to? Does it mean I won’t tell for a little bit and then spill the beans to someone without thinking what the possible consequences of that someone knowing will be? Does it mean I will tell only to those who will never ever tell it to anyone else but the next person?

What did you mean when you said you won’t tell?

Why did you goddam tell?

Do you see what it’s doing to us? Did you forsee this fault that your earthquake opened between us? Much like Abraham’s sea, it is opening wider and wider and don’t you feel it? Don’t you notice it at all?

Goddam you. Your story is more repulsive than mine; broken if mine were chipped; hell if mine were purgatory. But I didn’t tell. And if I did, I didn’t tell the wrong person.

What did you mean when you said you won’t tell? You meant you will tell, and tell the wrong person, and it meant I will never give you any access to such a degree of depth in my life again.