Forest

Matt understood. Her explanation was not unlike investigative reporting. “How did you get yourself into this?”

“Do you know how many times I’ve asked myself that?” Raminder said. “Things were fine. We were living in the Greer family home, had a huge, two bedroom suite totally self-contained, I was pregnant and, of course, preoccupied. When Gerard had his stroke, Garth, who was convalescing in another part of the house, began to take over and Grant just let him take charge.

“After Darshan was born I was spending time at home and noticed a lot of rough looking people coming and going at all hours of the day and night including Ivan.  Finally, I realized Ivan had moved in. I talked to Grant and he kept telling me everything was okay, totally legit. I guess I wanted to believe him. I was a new mother, my family had abandoned me, I was dependent on Grant.”

Even in the world Matt had been living in the past twelve years things really didn’t happen suddenly. Sure, he arrived when all hell had broken lose but before then there likely had been a bunch of little incidents that, taken separately you could ignore, just as Rami had ignored what was happening where she lived. But there was always some moment when something brought all the disparate events together and it became apparent how dramatically things had changed. By then it was too late for negotiating, too late for compromise. You either fought or ran.

 International events, including life in Pitt Landing, were not like fiction. The story didn’t begin with an inciting incident that changed everything. It happened gradually and came with a huge amount of backstory, but like fiction, nobody was interested in knowing about it beforehand.