A Firm Refusal

You ask why I do not visit family. Unthinkable. Kin implies obligations, shrill noises, and hands seeking to grab and poke without permission. I stayed perched atop the perimeter brick wall, well away from any such nuisance. The narrow lane behind the garden was vacant, save for a stray cardboard parcel tag dangling from a rusty wire mesh fence. I stepped across the mortar, took the stiff cardboard tag between two fingers, and tore it loose, dropping it into the weeds below. Distractions and sentiment are worthless. Solitude is the only state worth defending, and out here, no one dares reach for me.