New Scotland Street Chapter 44: Being simpatico

Matthew had always found it difficult to cope with tears. Others might be able to endure the visible dissolution that tears involved – the misting over of the eyes, the quivering of the lips, the display of weakness and vulnerability that was our real human lot, no matter how we covered ourselves with the clothing of certainty and conviction. We were, when all was said and done, children lost in the wood, and to break into tears was the most understandable of reactions, the most quintessentially human one too.