"Will you remember this day, Gogol?" his father had asked, turning back to look at him, his hands pressed like earmuffs to either side of his head. "… - Jhumpa Lahiri

"Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go."

Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

Remember it always. Remember that you and I made this journey and went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

Remember that you and I made this journey, that we went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge — she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind. It was easier to turn her back on the two countries that could claim her in favor of one that had no claim whatsoever.

What did I do? I read books and studied. I listened to my parents and did what they asked me to. Even though, in the end, I never made them happy. I didn’t like myself, and something told me I’d end up alone.

The future haunted but kept her alive; it remained her sustenance and also her predator.