One Small Mistake

by Dandy Smith

I want what they have, that easy, long-lasting love.

my achievements are ignored like cracked brooches at the bottom of a bargain bin.

if I could just get my name onto the front cover of a book, maybe Mum and Dad would look at me the way they look at her.

men age like fine wine; women rot like meat.

forget when people ask how you are, they don’t really want a truthful answer.

is too long to be unhappy.’

‘Yeah, if someone told me I had to be unhappy for a year and then it would all be over, I could handle that. But if someone told me I had to be unhappy for the next fifty years, I’d have to make a change.’

Even as you got older, you loved as deeply as you grieved.

You feel things deeper than anyone else I know.

if you feel love with a more intense bite, the same must go for fear.

Do people see you in me too? If you never come home, when our parents look at me, will they only ever see the ghost of you?

a moment, I forgot you were missing, and it felt so good. So good.

For three hours, I was not Adaline Archer, the sister of that missing girl. I was Adaline Archer, the woman who eats professionally made French toast with her thoughtful, handsome husband. But when I came home, you were still missing, and Ethan went back to work.

The kind of sex that makes you question if you’re a good feminist.

This is my first, truly clear memory. It’s like my life started the day you were born.