Private Rites

by Julia Armfield

Agnes in general is so strange to Stephanie, such a palpably dissonant mix of tender and standoffish, given to flinching away from affectionate gestures and returning half an hour later to ask for a kiss. She is good at housework, good at being quiet, good at fucking, terrible at listening to the tail ends of sentences, and always asking to have things explained to her twice. Her moods are unreliable, sudden spells of bad temper whipping up into snappishness that abates almost as soon as it manifests. Things that appear to upset her: being asked to share her thoughts when she doesn’t feel like it, being looked at affectionately for too long, loud noises, cold nights, her father’s house, the suggestion that she might want to talk to a professional about her relationship with her family.