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Swimming

A swimming lesson, a beautiful dive, a cute lifeguard

Unlocked

My mother regularly told me, Heather, if you are ever in danger and I’m not there, make your way to a house with flowers. The flowers show they care and are kind and will help.

It didn’t occur to me until years later that we had not a single bloom in our yard.

Sunbeams

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.

William Stafford

I’ll Never Bother You Again

The night Cole had followed my orders, I couldn’t believe it had worked: my taking the rifle, my telling him no. But I hadn’t discovered a bold, brave part of myself. It was nothing like that. What I’d discovered was that I could pretend to be someone I was not, and that people could be fooled by this, and that this could save my life.

The Good Patient

I placed a check mark next to the box on the insurance form that said “pre-existing condition.” I placed a check mark next to “nonsmoker.” I placed a check mark next to dog owner, homeowner, married, employed, college educated, drinks socially, and has no savings or family members with money to turn to for help. I placed a check mark next to I want to live to be twenty-six.

Danger

On the subway, in a mine, at a gas station

The Genuine Heart Of Sadness

Basic goodness is good because it is unconditional, or fundamental. It is there already, in the same way that heaven and earth are there already.

Security

A convent; an ER’s “safe room”; a cage within a cage, inside a prison within a prison