The Why and How of Amelia Lost

During my sophomore year in high school, on our way back from the homecoming dance, my boyfriend of three whole weeks—Doug Cougill—broke up with me; dumped me for another girl he’d actually spent most of the evening dancing with.

I was devastated.

Still wearing my farm-chic Gunny Sack dress that I’d bought off the rack at Nordstrom’s (this was 1978 after all) I flung myself onto the sofa and sobbed out my anguish. Then I waited for my mother to share a similar story from her past, one that woul...