Nancie, Again

And changing her name? What is that? Literally, from the very moment her money train ended with my grandparents and Aunt Steffie, she changed her name from the family that supported her and all the problems that came from using drugs her entire life, to the name of the family that left her at the hospital for adoption. And Grandma and My Aunt Steffie's response was "Oh, she's turning her life around, it's a fresh start for her, she's changed," looking on with glossy, wide eyes admiring Nancie's brave and noble turnaround? I saw them as awestruck bystanders

It was stupidity, blinding, inarguable stupidity. It was almost a tragedy, I thought, that the dumbest people I knew, the most brainless human beings I ever had the displeasure of talking with, were people in my own family. They put up a wall, even Pop Pop, from the rest of their brains. When it came to everything else they were fine: cooking, sports, being a grandma, but when it came to Nancie, everything changed, rational thought was suspended.

Maybe Nancie was trying to build a new life, have a fresh start, a fresh name, a new man? No. I couldn't even bring myself to try and imagine that. I knew it wasn't true. As unfair and closed to possibilities as that mindset is, nothing could make me think Nancie was turning a new leaf. The behavior resembled the virus', take, take, take what you can until you have drained everything there is to gain--and then leave, depart for the next host. The behaviors are indistinguishable.