novel idea, maybe.

When I was about to graduate high school, I asked my father why I always felt alone. No matter how close I was to people, I might as well have been thousands of miles away.

"It's our family's curse" he said. "We are forever alone. We can interact with the world, but we can never really fit into it".

The concept of a family curse sort of came out of left field, so I asked why, why we were doomed to be alone?

"We're not so much doomed as we have a responsibility" my dad explained. "Our ancestors made a covenant, a pact to accept great responsibility. We maintain the balance in the world. For every person who fits perfectly into their surroundings, there are people who do not, who observe the world as if looking through a window or at a painting. The man you see in the subway who is always alone, the silent people in your school or office. They are all of the same lineage as us. We are watchers, keepers."

"But you met mom, you had a family, several kids. Are you really alone?"


"We must continue the bloodline. I may love your mother, but only from a distance. We can never truly understand each other's existence on a similar level. It is a case of the cosmic versus the terrestrial, we just exist in different spheres. Once again, this maintains balance. You might feel extraordinarily close to someone, but when you wake up next to them in the morning, you may as well be on the island of Calypso. Son, you are very, very far from home."