How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

One weekend, George’s father interrupts her as she watches some vintage French films gifted to her by H’s mother. He has taken to drinking since his wife’s death, and he laments that George will leave him too someday soon. Feeling for him, George tells him about the leak in her bedroom ceiling as though she had just noticed it. He rushes off to examine it, and soon the roof is repaired and evidence of the water damage erased. In her next session with Mrs. Rock, George admits to having lied in a past session and opens up about how much she dislikes some of the counselor’s conversational techniques. George silently regrets refusing to kiss her mother goodbye the last time she saw her at home, and she looks forward to the trip abroad they’ll be taking this summer to finish scattering her mother’s ashes in places that were meaningful to her. Mrs. Rock tells George about the importance of speaking truth to power, George corrects her grammar as she was wont to do prior to her mother’s death, and the session ends amicably.

Since moving to Denmark, H began by texting George facts about Francesco del Cossa.