Mrs. Fletcher

by Tom Perrotta

The fact that her life had turned into this: this lifeless hush, this faint but elusive whiff of decay. This absolutely-nothing-to-complain-about.

aggrieved innocence.

the r prty

a world so inexplicably beautiful that she forgot what she was thinking about and just stood still for a moment, breathing it all in.

Addiction was a bleak word, though, a hundred percent negative. Maybe habit was a better term. People were addicted to heroin. But their morning coffee was just a habit.

trying to find the one that would light up your brain—

all of them trying to rid themselves

They were just labels, a shorthand to organize the chaos of the world. But the labels have a funny way of becoming our names, whether we agree with them or not.