Breaking the Impenetrable Wall

A young man stands unnaturally straight with his arms jutting down as if he wants to use them as stakes in the ground. His thick framed glasses cannot obscure his withering stare and he fixes his lips in a horizontal line that betrays nothing except resolution. On either side are siblings, one older and the other younger. The elder one also stands upright but he tilts his head ever so slightly indicating a hint of bemusement at the futility of any attempt to pierce their wall.

Answers are given in a flat monotone betraying no crack in their communal facade. The youngest one is more open, but does not betray his brothers. What is the best way to break through and get more than short, mumbled answers? Perhaps I should test the older - but he is taller than I and looks down at me from a position of strength. And the younger? He only defers to his seniors.

I decide to proceed with talking directly to the recalcitrant one. Ah, but when I press the middle one what do I see but his siblings verbally intercede. They are protecting him! I gently persist hoping that he will feel secure enough to speak freely. Indeed this is the case; he smiles and expresses his mastery over the situation while the older chimes in as well. He too is smiling.

I've succeeded in getting past the fortress wall and am rewarded not with any sense of domination or having made a big impression. Rather I have glimpsed these young people adopt a strategy of protecting and preserving one another. And I have secured a genuine, albeit fleeting, ground from where I can wish them well and harbor an expectation to see them again on this world made incrementally smaller.