My Darling Dreadful Thing

by Johanna van Veen

“Because the truth scares people. They’re always afraid of what they can’t explain,

She must love him to the point of speechlessness,

“Please leave your shoes in the hallway. We wear slippers inside,” she said. “To protect the floors?” “No, because my mother taught me, and wearing shoes inside has felt wrong ever since.”

Children could be so very vicious.

I felt quite useless and rather lonely. I was used to this, but I resented how easy it was to feel this way again now, when I had expected I need never be alone again.

There are things a girl with a face and skin like yours can never understand about a girl with a face and skin like mine. Know, yes, but not understand.”

“Some things must be experienced to be understood.”

Just because you can’t explain how it could be real doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

“Must love be about suffering?”