kamil will age awkwardly, similarly to how he did everything else. he will do it while gangling,
slumping, and sneering, never sure exactly which culture to succumb to. does he pick the eastern
european culture he left behind when he was ten, and eat too much cabbage, and babble in polish,
and ignore his children? does he pick the american social constructs he's tried and failed
desperately to latch onto with any semblance of grace? what old-age comes to the in-betweeners?

he marries a woman who is, like him, boring and an immigrant and a shut-in. too old to live with
other people besides each other, they slowly run out of friends and run up the sort of debt that
will haunt their descendants. they cling to each other and share a stream of worries on couches
in front of computer and television screens. they discuss the small fames they gained and lost,
the notoriety that ought to have been theirs. their worries wane to whispers between yellow
walls. their children will have a better time of it, far more certain of who they are and firmly
grounded in a cultural identity. their children will bury them half-heartedly, and lament never
having known their parents very well.

03/05/2010

Author's Note: This sounds bleak but that's just because it's condensed.

Posted on 03/05/2010
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