The History of Sound: Stories

by Ben Shattuck

My father said that every story is a confession if you listen closely enough.

But you should have a little pain in your life—humans are meant to have a little pain. Endings, I suppose, like seasons, like winters. That’s where all the good stuff is. Ripped apart, so you can feel the mending. There’s nothing like it. I wouldn’t wish an uneventful life on my worst enemy.”

Standing in the forest, looking at the headlights of her idling car illuminate nothing in the road ahead, she considered this for the first time: that what she thought was the beginning of her life might have been the end.