Tell the Machine Goodnight

by Katie Williams

What they don’t understand is that my condition is a symptom of me. That I am a stone buried deep in the ground, something that will never grow, no matter how good the dirt.

Because I know that when people comfort you, they’re really just comforting themselves.

Saff doesn’t remember that she was not just victim but also culprit. Cruelest are the punishments we visit upon ourselves.

THE WORD FOR SPELL, as in casting a spell, comes from the same root as the word for narration. This is evidence that ancient people believed language to be a sort of magic, the simple act of naming something akin to creating it, controlling it. If you know someone’s true name, you can destroy him, or so they say.

There is no origin for the word love. It is one of the first words and has always meant only itself.

But there is knowing something and then there is feeling it. For adults, these are two different things. For children, they are one.

Being home from college for the summer is like sleeping over at a friend’s house you’ve only ever visited in the afternoon. The furniture is familiar, but the light has gone funny on you.