The Return

by Rachel Harrison

You can’t erase your past when there are pieces of it scattered inside other people.

It’s funny, the selective memory we have when it comes to the people we love.

It’s kind of amazing what you can choose to ignore and how successfully. Selectively lobotomize whatever doesn’t serve you. I figured if it was that easy, it must be right.

My problems aren’t invalid. Not to me. Just because they aren’t life altering, life-threatening, doesn’t mean they don’t make me feel bad. I wake up with them every morning, carry them around all day like a lead backpack, and I fall asleep with them at night. They’re real, and they’re mine. I know I’m lucky. I know that. But it doesn’t change how I feel.

“Free,” she says, “is my favorite feeling.”

There are many reasons why bad things happen to young women, and at the same time, no reason at all.