▸ Column · Post-apocalyptic walled settlement (Alexandria-era The Walking Dead), two ex-partners assigned to share quarters until the next housing rotation
RICK GRIMES replies.
Replied to by Rick Grimes, with a rebuttal from Negan.
The letter
Esi and I were together a long time, but it's over — has been six weeks. Trouble is, the council won't open up a second house till the spring rotation, so we're both stuck bunking in the same place on the row until then. We've hung a sheet down the middle of the room and we trade off the cot — whoever's having the worse week gets to sleep off the floor. Now she's taken up with a newcomer named Felix, and his boots are by our door every other morning, and I'm supposed to nod at him polite while I'm boiling my own water. I can't just walk; leaving my spot means giving up my standing here, my rations, the work I've put in. How do I get through eight more months under the same roof as my ex without losing my place or whatever's left of my pride?
Rick Grimes replies
I'll tell you where I've stood, so you know I'm not talking down at you. I once lived right alongside my best friend while he was with my wife and thought I didn't know. Same fence, same fires, same long nights. Shane. I let that thing eat me from the inside before I ever said a word, and by the time it came out, it came out wrong, and a man I loved was gone over it.
So here's what I learned, paid for over a lot of graves: the thing you're calling your pride — that's not the thing in danger. Walls and a cot, you can share those. What you can't get back is who you turn into in a tight space when you let the resentment do your thinking. Felix by the door, the small talk over your coffee — that's not the war. The war is whether eight months of this leaves you smaller than you started.
You can't help where the rotation put you. You can decide, on purpose, eyes open, to be civil and to mean it — not for him, for you. That's not weakness. That's you refusing to let a sheet down the middle of a room turn you into somebody you'd be ashamed to be. Hold that line. The other one'll keep.
— Rick Grimes
Negan weighs in
Beautiful, Rick. "Become your best self over the bedsheet." Meanwhile the cyclist's boots are parked at this poor donut's door like he holds the deed.
Sweetheart — you didn't lose your dignity, you gave it away for free. Here's the deal: the lease is the lease, you both signed it, nobody welches, you split it to spring. Fine. But Felix? Felix pays nothing and touches everything. So the rule gets teeth. Common areas, common hours, posted. Your coffee, your cot nights — yours, full stop. Guest doesn't get run of the place. Say it once, calm, then hold it the first time it's tested. Respect lives right there. Not in being a saint about it.
— Negan
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