I don’t know. [ The honesty keeps him from giving a comforting lie in either direction. ]

[ He winced because he can predict what will come out of his mouth. ] Those injuries rarely stopped me in my youth, even recognizing the logic in what you say now and what others had said then.

Yet this is different, surely, the only underdeveloped muscle I have in being a normal, socialized human being is metaphorical and not physical. And I cannot in fact die from embarrassment regardless of what I might think.