The Way I Am

I went to the hospital with my cousin Susan to visit my sick Aunt Mary. On the bus ride coming back, I was talking to Susan. I said, “I’ve told myself…”

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She interrupted me. “You talk to yourself?” she asked.

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“No! It’s just an expression!” I declared.

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“Then why the hell did you say you were talking to yourself? Why can’t you just say you were thinking?”

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I yelled, “You know what I meant, why should I say what I was thinking if you already knew what I meant?” All of the people on the bus looked back at me.

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“Because you sound like a crazy person saying you talk to yourself.”

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It went on like this for about twenty minutes, back and forth, until she finally exclaimed, “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

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She didn’t talk to me for two weeks after that. But that’s how things were back then and that’s why I am the way I am now.