Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

Author:Dani Shapiro [Shapiro, Dani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

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The mist has lifted, leaving no trace. The sky is now bright with a constellation that one day many years from now a small boy in Red Sox pajamas will be able to identify as the summer triangle: Altair, Deneb, and Vega, the brightest stars in the constellations of Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra. Misty herself so solid and alive in one moment, so completely broken the next. Down the hall, past the framed prints from the Van Gogh Museum, Theo knocks on Sarah’s door. He waits for her voice, an answer, an invitation. Come on in! But he is met with silence. He doesn’t dare test the knob. It was me, she had said. I was driving. Never before has he felt so loved. His sister is willing to take the fall for him. Forevermore, love will confuse Theo Wilf. His future selves, like so many wobbly tops set spinning at this very moment. He deserves nothing. He has killed a girl. That knowledge pierces his deepest interior. He wants to wake his parents, to climb into bed between them the way he used to as a little boy. His father would treat the burn on his belly. Cover it with ointment. He wants to tell them everything, safe in the knowledge that they will find a way to fix things—to fix him—no matter what.

Instead, he heads downstairs and opens the refrigerator. His hands are shaking a little as he places cold cuts between two thick pieces of leftover challah smeared with Mimi’s homemade mayonnaise. He drinks milk straight from the container. He swipes at the wetness on his face as he stands at the kitchen counter. He doesn’t bother with a plate. He doesn’t take the sandwich up to his room. There’s no time; he’s in a rush. His stomach hurts. But bite after ravenous bite, he will try to fill the gnawing void before it devours him.

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