She hands you the serving spoon before you have to ask for it. You notice. Neither of you says anything.
At a family function, two daughters-in-law of the same house occupy a strange shared territory, close enough to be compared, too structurally similar to be strangers, and yet rarely given a language for what moves between them. The family sees two women helping in the kitchen, sitting in the same row, managing their respective children. What is actually happening is more layered, and more honest, than anything the function officially contains.
