John versus saying what he means....

My last two posts presuppose, of course, that John's opinions are meant to be taken at face value. The man may not seem to know what personal space is or why it needs to be respected but he does have something of a sense of humor about life; many's the time that he's dodged a hurled object because he made a point that made Elly uncomfortable. The odd thing about that is, oddly enough, that what makes Elly the angriest is the suggestion that her life isn't an endless tapestry of woe, misery and disappointment; being deprived of her cherished delusion that the sky is falling is not something she wants to do owing to her odd belief that if her troubles are big and important than she is as well. He usually does this by making ironic remarks about her beloved fears and hatreds; this, I should think, is because the people who think that he's the one who should be disappointed are correct. It's not hard to imagine that the Elly that he dated was attractive, friendly and fairly fun to be around; imagine his shock to learn that it was all a façade meant to disguise the real humorless, depressed basket case we call Flapandhonk. It's little wonder he can't say what he thinks out and out; if he stopped using jokes she can't get, he'd get far worse than coffee cups whistled at him. Eventually, he stops talking to her entirely and forts up in a shed playing with trains.