The Cord
“Sometimes when I look at him, I feel like he’s me.
But if the baby is me, then who am I? You?”
The arrival of this baby has changed everything.
Ash hovers as his mother holds her grandchild for the first time, mesmerised. The bag of handmade baby clothes she’s brought lies at her feet.
After she leaves, Ash watches his wife feeding their newborn son, so close, almost intertwined. They look so complete, while Ash feels aware of a growing chasm separating him from them, and him from his own mother.
As sleepless nights, relentless crying and hushed arguments take their toll, Ash grapples with the puzzle of how to be a father, a son, a husband—mashing together pieces that don’t seem to fit. All he knows is he’s determined not to repeat the past.