We all have our pride at stake, bonded to the fact that walls of quaint old houses are paper thin. News travels fast around these small towns, and although the family size has doubled for the next week, the vast expanse leaves enough room for those loneliness birds to settle.

The gunn rang out across the hall, the silence ensued, and the niceties were swept under the carpet. When the prodigal son returned only to be greated with sarcasmic undertones about lost time and opportunity, the son might have well just never looked back.

A week in context is but anything but a short time. The wedge between our fractured friendships has never been driven deeper.

Sometimes a feigned sleep is the only answer to anything.