The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress by Michelle Richmond

Author:Michelle Richmond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: short stories, literary fiction, michelle richmond, awp award, short story cycle, novel in stories
Publisher: Michelle Richmond

You hear about people going over the edge. You never imagine it might happen to you. I remember it now as a feeling of vertigo, a gradual slipping.

I am sitting at the kitchen table, the white pages spread out in front of me, open to K. Katz, Kent, Kesler. I cannot believe it’s there in black and white, for anyone to see. Keyman, Hillary. Not just an initial, but her full name. For the first time in my life, I begin speaking aloud to myself, saying things like, What now? What do you plan to do?

The white pages remain open on the kitchen table for hours. I have taken a few days off from the store. I am the only one home. I complete various household tasks—laundry, dishes, the transfer of photos into albums—coming back every few minutes to the table and staring down at the phone book. I have memorized her phone number. At 3:00 in the afternoon I call her. She is home. I tell her only my first name. “I was there,” I say. “At the accident. I’ve seen you in the papers. I’d like to talk.”

There is a pause, perhaps a moment of deliberation during which Hillary Keyman decides whether or not to be gracious. Maybe she's wondering how long this thing is going to last, wanting her life back the way it was before the accident.

“Okay,” she says finally. “I’ve got some errands in Little Five Points tomorrow. How about the Russian Pastry Shop?”

“Perfect,” I say, feeling grateful, relieved, thinking that I can make her understand.

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