Competent people develop that register in different ways. Some develop it from experience. Some develop it from fear. I developed mine from being told the safety net was there and then arriving at the drop to find it wasn’t.
That’s not the worst origin story. But it is, specifically, mine.
What Sophie Knew
Sophie and I met in the first semester at Meadowfield, as I said. What I haven’t said is how much she knew over the years, and how she knew it.
The thing about telling someone your story piecemeal, over a long friendship, is that they end up with a very complete picture that no single conversation produced. Sophie knew about the billing office. She knew about the bus. She knew about the withdrawn class because I called her that night, not to process it dramatically but because I’d needed to tell someone and she was the person I told things to.
She also knew, in broad outline, about the family financial situation — not because I’d told her the whole story at once, but because pieces of it came up over time in the way that life details come out between friends who see each other regularly.
She knew my parents had redirected money they’d promised me. She’d known that since we were twenty-two, when I’d said it once, almost offhandedly, in the context of explaining why I’d taken the loans-and-work route instead of starting at a four-year school. She’d asked one question and I’d answered it and we’d moved on. She’d filed it.