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No, the question is why he married her. Because he doesn't love himself, and it's unclear he ever did. And if he never loved himself, why would he accept another's love for him? And that is probably yet another reason he does not want the dog to come, because he's afraid of his wife's memory of love, and of someone who might love him still, though he thinks he does not deserve it, and never had.

These questions. They’re the questions I asked myself writing this, and at other times in my life which may have informed the piece 😉.

That you came away asking them as well feels like a triumph 🎉