She

This is another story that I had almost dumped from the collection.  Somehow the ideas I wanted to capture and the way I wanted to develop the characters was not clicking together.  Here again, my editor Beth helped me reshape the story.

The subtle nuance I brought in 'Four Eulogies' has been explored more in this story.  That of a relationship outside of the norms.  In Four Eulogies I showed it as an extra marital affair but here it was shown as a coworker.

In both these stories my question is on whether the relationships we have in our lives are more exclusive or inclusive?  Are all our relationships defined by the norms setup as acceptable boundaries by the society we live in?  How would we define something that is outside of the boundary but does not infringe upon what is inside the boundary?

Extract :

“What did she mean to you?” my wife, Monica, asked me as I took the ramp toward 101 North from Santa Clara.

I didn’t know how to respond, so I kept silent and pre-tended to focus on the road, buying some time to think. I looked at Monica through the corner of my eye to gauge her mood before I responded.

“Honestly, I do not know. I wish I could say that she is my friend or something else, but she defies all known social norms. I have not been able to classify her into any relation-ship box.” The honesty in my voice seemed to have caught her by surprise, as I noticed her turning to face toward me. I continued driving with my eyes glued to the road, but my mind was busy trying to find an answer to the question.

“What do you mean that you don’t know? You’ve known her for so many years now!”
Monica sounded surprised.