Inside — Outside
The Love We Had, new chapter 30
The plot and characters of this novel are fictional. The action takes place in Odda, a small industrial town at the end of a long fjord arm in southern Norway.
New chapter 30
It’s about life, living the life I have.
I live, I walk in the streets. I go home. I go from room to room.
I travel. I can be inside or I can be outside — it’s not the same.
How can I find respect? How can I feel accepted?
How can I know my place and know that I belong here?
The opposite of this is to be on the outside, to be excluded, to not be part of the community.
There are some basic needs we humans have. One of these is the need to feel accepted, to be on the inside. To love and to be loved back is to be inside. To love and not be loved back is the opposite. It’s being at the outside, and it has always been a problem for me.
It has become clear to me during these last years of my marriage with Lars. I sometimes have tried to talk with him about it.
“Listen”, I say, “can we talk?”
“What is it?” he asks.
