Strength of Character

　　"You don't like me very much, do you?"

　　Mum chips in. "Can you blame her, the way you're acting? You might think you're all grown up now, but——" Uman asked.

　　"Look, we're all getting a bit tired and tetchy," R.I. Ryan says. "Shall we call a time-out?"

　　I tell her that sounds like a brilliant idea.

　　"And, Gloria. It's not a matter of liking or disliking. I'm just trying to establish the facts and sometimes that means asking you to talk about things you'd rather not." She pauses. "As it happens, though, I do like you. I wish I'd your strength of character when I was fifteen."

　　I try to imagine what she was like when she was my age.

　　I can't, though. Any more than I could look at a picture of myself when I was a baby and find signs of the girl I have become.

　　Strength of character. Is that what I have? Uman thought so, and so does D.I. Ryan. But they've only seen what happens on the surface —— the things I do, the things I say —— and that's not where your character is. Uman knew me —— knows me —— better than anyone ever has, but even he never set foot inside my head or heart. Never thought my thoughts or felt what i felt.

Twenty Questions for Gloria, p114-115
Martin Bedford
ISBN 978-1-4063-6353-1