August Through the Peephole

Via recounts August’s facial features in unflinching detail: low, slanted, bulging eyes without lashes or brows; a large nose; pinched sides where ears should be; no cheekbones; deep facial creases; and scars from multiple lip surgeries. She remembers his severe overbite, tiny chin, and the jawbone graft that finally let him keep his tongue in and eat without a feeding tube.

Via notes that August can hear, though doctors predict hearing aids may be needed. August dreads being noticed even more, and Via withholds telling him that hearing aids would be the least of his worries.

She wonders what August knows about how others see him and whether he has constructed a self-image that shields him. Via compares this to seeing the younger woman inside Grans’s aging face, asking if August glimpses who he might have been without the single gene that shaped his appearance.

Via reflects that before surgeries, August’s expressions were easier to read. Now, while Mom and Dad still read his subtle cues, Via struggles to interpret them and wishes August would simply express his feelings directly.

Frustration surfaces as Via describes how the family still orbits August—changing plans and promises around his moods. She concludes they’ve worked so hard to make him feel normal that he believes he is, and asserts the family must help him mature by treating him less like a baby.