Cirrus@Austlit

' He slumped there, one hand upturned and the suggestion of a shrug in the operational shoulder, perhaps accompanied by a raising of the eyebrow and additional forehead creases on that side. The sentiment behind the constrained movement seemed as real as if we had really been communicating. It was an offer to communicate, an invitation to me to confirm with him that this was what it had all come to. Even then I refused, for some reason unable to reciprocate his honesty. I proffered a smile - genuine enough, in its way, but far from fully acknowledging what he knew and desperately wanted me to accept. Not just his impending death but the belittling of his previous gestures. They had been made over the past few years before his final stroke. On each occasion, he'd broached topics, reminiscences, I'd been non-committal, impossible to reach. I've since come to understand how disappointing that must have been for him.' (Publication abstract)