Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Mira’s parents call and tell her that her aunt’s friend has a son who is a neuropsychologist and lives within driving distance of Mira. Her family begins pressuring her to date him, calling her endlessly and coaxing her into it with warnings of her need to have children before it is too late. Her dying uncle tells her, “Just meet with him […] And then I will know that you are taken care of before I go” (129). Mira convinces herself that she agrees to call the neuropsychologist for her uncle and to catch up with her parents and brother, but deep down she does it because “it felt really… right” (131). She goes to a bar and hooks up with a man from the band playing that night. Mira ends up calling, but the neuropsychologist never calls her back. One night while she waits for the neuropsychologist to call back, Mira has a dream that she chases a small brown boy across a field, but she does not know whether the child is hers. Her family immediately switches their tune, telling her it was not worth it anyway and she probably avoided an unpleasant experience and suggests things that might be wrong with him.