Summary

The speaker continues to take readers through the different punctuation marks that represent his family's means of communication. The next symbol is the "pedal point" (~), which signifies "a thought that dissolves into a suggestive silence" (83). The speaker admits that his younger brother is the person who uses this symbol the most with him, "probably because he, of all the members of my family, the one most capable of telling me what he needs to tell me without having to say it" (83). He provides an example in which his brother recently spent a week in the ICU for his heart. The doctors recommended taking care of the problem as soon as possible. The speaker called his brother and told him not to worry. His brother said, "I know~," to which the speaker replies, "I know~" (83). The speaker then wonders, "Does my little brother have relationships...