Very Inneresting

“How’s your dad?”
“What?”
“You called your dad on your way home from work, right?”
“What da-“
“Or maybe one of your brothers?”
“Nah I call my dad, yer righ’but how d’you know dat?”
“Your Illinois is really loud right now like when you’re on the phone with your mom or dad.”
“You can tell when I called my parents, like after I hang up?”
“Yes I can. Or your brothers.”
“Dat’s bananas.”
“I don’t want to make you self-conscious, I think it’s endearing how you sound when you talk to them.”
“No itsalrigh, I don’feel attacked or whatever. It’s jus a lil weird doe, jus cuz I don’really thinka myself as havin’ a Illinois accent. Like I guess I do, I guess I know dat but I’m not always aware of it.”
“You totally do but it kind of comes in and out, like when you call your parents like I said.”
“I think it’s kinda inneresting dat I do dat when I’m call’em. I ‘idn’really notice it ad all dat my accent changes when I’m onna phone wi’dem'ntil you pointed it ou’ a coupla times. I notice it more now more often since you mentioned it.”
“I really don’t want to make you self conscious about it.”
“Nah yer fine don’worrybout it. Like I said I think it’s inneresting. I will say I didn’know dat I stay in my Illinois even after I hang up the phone, I thought I jus switched into it more durin’a conversation. Like I hung da phone wi’my dad like ten minutes before I got home from work, ’s wild to me you can after the fact like dat.”
“I totally can.”
“Very inneresting.”
“You don’t sound that way when you get home from work normally.”
“Dat makes sense. I don’t talk dat way at work.”
“Can you tell the difference at work?”
“Sorda. Sometimes more den udder times. A lotta da time I can’t tell but I also feel like, like if I gotta wear a tie for something I feel kinda like I’m pretendin’, kinda like when a kid puts on grown up shoes an’ stomps aroun, you know?”
“I think so.”
“It doesn’ feel totally like me, the way I talk at work, but not in a big deal way. I would defnitly feel self-conscious onna phone doe if I was talkin’a my ma, er my dad er my brudders at work’n work people were listenin’ an’ that does feel kinda funny cuz how I talk den sorda feels like who I really am, but it only sorda does cuz it also feels like there’s not totally a clear ‘who I really am’ anymore in nere.”
“Oh that sounds sad.”
“Nah it’s not in a bad way, ’s jus’ like, I’m one way wi’some people’n anudder way wit udder people. It’s fine. In a lotta ways I’m more self-conscious about how I talk work den I am about how I talk wi’my brudders an’all. Like I’d feel even self-conscious if they heard me talkin’ like I do at work, I’d be worried it’d soun’ like I was tryna be fancy er some’em. You know what I mean?”
“I’m not sure.”
“It migh’be differnt cuz yer folks went to college and all. If I talk like college it’s a distance thing, it marks out, like, like it unnerlines some a da distance between me’n’my family. I ‘ink when I was younger an’ more angry about some a da shit from my childhood an’ like still felt scared a getting trapped where I grew up, like I spen’ a long time feelin’ kinda suffocated by my family, I ‘ink den I liked da feelin a distance that came wi’ some a da differnces, like talkin’ in a college way, it felt reassuring in a way den dat I’d like really achieved dat distance I was cravin. But now dat I’m older an my brudders are adults an all, an’ like wi’having the nephews and nieces and all, I don’ really like thinking about the differnces ’n’ the gaps between us. Like I’m nah naive er whatever, I know dat da differences are there to some extent now but I don’wanna underline it and if anything I’m more tryna cultivate or at least hang on to how I’m still like dem. Zat make sense?”
“I think so.”
“It sounds sad but I don’mean it dat way, ’s jus’ a part a life really, I ‘ink it’s nah really so much dat I’m tryna be like my brudders, ’s’more like I don’ wan’dem thinking I’m tryna be differnt from them or distant from dem. I probly got a lil guilt lef’still from movin’ out when ‘ey were so young an all. I dunno. Anyway. Jus’ inneresting is all. An’ it’s still nuts dat you can tell if I called ‘em from how I talk.”
“Your dad okay?”
“Oh, yeah, fine, thanks. I should call him more often, an’ my ma too.”