Will you read with me?

My great-aunt told lovely stories about her parents, her mother Mary and her father Percy. Percy was quiet, a bit of a socialist, a reader. Mary was a cheesemaker, a manager, a maker-doer. She would invite everyone for Christmas dinner and he would go out and dig his turnips. In the evenings, Percy would read by the fire, and I imagine Mary would knit or sew or make elaborate plans and organisational lists, not that I'm projecting or anything. After a while, she'd crack it and say, "Do talk to us, Percy." And he'd slowly put down his book or paper, take off his glasses and look around like a mole emerging into sunlight from the dark and fragrant earth. He might talk then, a little bit, but after a while he'd retreat back into his book and silence would fall again. Not that I'm projecting or anything.So, I guess what I'm saying is that there's precedent, and it's taken me a long time to realise that not everyone holds with reading in company. Some people find it disconcerting and kind of rude, and they want you to come out and talk to them or at least keep an ear open for what they're saying.But we readers go a long way under when we're reading, and spoken words take a long time to reach us down there. Surfacing takes effort, and we don't function so well bobbing about with the chat and the questions and all. Haul me out of the water and talk to me on dry land or let me sink back down. Better yet, join me underwater.  My sister knows how this works. Every now and then we'll go out for coffee, and somewhere between the stories that must be told and the ordering of drinks one of us will ask if it's okay to read. Then we'll sit there, coffee at our elbows, books in our hands, and read together. Together and apart.