[Fiction] An adolescent girl’s discoveries about her beautiful, elusive mother:
“At the time, what I saw struck me as a strange dream, one that I managed to forget for many years. I was so angry with my mother for so long. Now I’m old enough to recognize the disillusion I saw dawning on her face that night. Happiness is elusive. I’ve learned you can become the kind of person you swore you’d never be. Your sense of self can slip out from under you. You can fall so far. She must have known it couldn’t last. Her eyes were closed against the future.”
“The Norwegians.” — Elliott Holt, Guernica magazine
Photo: Froskeland/Flickr
Get the Longreads Weekly Email