The Social Contract

He is a neighbour but not
very neighbourly. A man who
will go to obvious and unseemly
lengths to avoid eye contact
much less socially obligatory
friendly greetings acknowledging
recognition of others he has
lived among for decades, poses
as a puzzle to his neighbours.
Accustomed to the chirpy
cheerfulness of the man's wife
a woman who strains to be
noticed and whose smile is
wide and instant, her husband's
deliberate distance seems a
mystery. No friends ever called
on their two children from whom
he also appeared detached. And
now they're on their own, their
father, stringently introverted,
lives hermetically estranged, his
wife desperately grasping at
social interaction as of a sponge
deprived of its compulsion to
expand, severely gasping for
life-affirming social hydration.