Sublime

Her few clothes hung austerely on a rail, and a television overlooked the foot of the bed; she watched it indiscriminately and with confusion, trying to make Bethesda’s child into an ordinary woman. And indeed she was ordinary, where certain essential matters were concerned – had not believed in hell since the day she’d laughed at the belt in her f

she acquired readers who would not otherwise

give way to it as if it was a sexual temptation. The house we lived in has changed hands several times, and some fairly recent owner sheared off the whole back part—the pantry, the back stairs, the kitchen, the

A coming baby shed lustre on everyone connected with it.

This is like fear, she thought, it’s as if I’m afraid for my life – and in fact she was afraid for her life, which she had created out of whatever leftovers she had to hand, and which she sometimes loved.

She was at an age when the future adult rattles the child’s bones like the bars of a cage.