Worry and its role in our personal stories
January 31, 2017 11:48 AM   Subscribe

My classmate Bethany, during the third grade, was the first friend to go missing: she moved to Oklahoma. I never heard from her again, despite earnest promises to keep in touch, and I naïvely spent months waiting for a postcard. I was torn between two versions of the story of her disappearance: 1) she lost my address in the shuffle of moving boxes; or 2) she was one of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The Lost Girls: A Rehearsal for Minor Tragedies is an essay by Mallory Chesser.
posted by Kattullus (3 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Fascinating but creepy read.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:08 PM on January 31, 2017 [3 favorites]


I liked that--it was equal parts menace and melancholy. Thanks for posting it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:43 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


Yeah, it evokes both the wonder and menace that the world has for children. Or at least children like myself. I lived on the third floor, but I was always half-expecting, when I would open the curtains in my childhood room, to see a head staring at me through the window. Even though I knew logically this was impossible, it was something I actively worried about.
posted by Kattullus at 3:28 AM on February 1, 2017 [3 favorites]


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