Around eight PM my mother called me.
“Tonight you are getting this prize and you are not there,” she said. (This evening I was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize.)
“I have to work here,” I said. “I’m in Ankara, and I have to work. I cannot be at two places at the same time.”

“You are not normal,” my mother answered. “You are abnormal.”

In my family everybody accuses the other person of being abnormal, but I try to stay out of this fight. My mother is allowed to believe that I’m abnormal.