Something in Another City

Lying in a bunk, adrift in the dark matter of the cosmic background, millions of miles from all that had ever seemed real to me, I saw those things that were obscured at close range: my father, who never permitted himself the freedom to evolve into an understanding being, accepting of the diversity of minds that constitute our world, yet profoundly values the lives he helped create, his own life’s crowning achievement; my mother, who adores her children despite their flaws, and longs for the intimacy of family, which she never learned how to nurture; my remaining brother, David, who has proven time and again that he would do anything he can for me in times of need, with no expectation of reward. I always felt that it would be a pity if I never saw them again, though I had thought it a pity that I could live with. I know now that I was wrong. All of this I came to after less than thirty hours in the navy.

This book came out of the next five years.