The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

by Joanna Cannon

“He said that Mrs. Creasy is officially a Missing Person.” “Missing from what?” Thinking made my feet slower. “Her life, I suppose.” “How can you be missing from your own life?” I slowed a little more. “Missing from the life you belong in.”

I still hadn’t learned the power of words. How, once they have left your mouth, they have a breath and a life of their own. I had yet to realize that you no longer own them. I hadn’t learned that, once you have let them go, the words can then, in fact, become the owners of you.

“You just never know, though, do you?” she said. And I realized she was giving me the words. So I took them and held on for a moment, and then I handed them back. “No,” I said, “you just never know.”