The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir

by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

All of these possible causes are causes in fact. The causes in fact are endless. The idea of proximate cause is a solution. The job of the law is to figure out the source of the story, to assign responsibility. The proximate cause is the one the law says truly matters.

But as a child I know only to hold my breath as the tracks snag the car tires. Then I touch my finger to the hard glass of the window, lest ghosts find a chink in my connection to the physical world, a way to come in.

I have been dreaming about witches that come to me in my sleep.

I am still and taut as a chrysalis this summer.

The waiting feels like that. It crams my lungs. It weighs on my chest.

Then summer swerves and starts its long descent.

Funny where the mind wants to lodge. Funny where it wants to think it can make a difference.

Maybe she’s planned so privately she’s kept the plan a secret even from herself.

In torts—which are really a measure of how you judge the harm a person does to another, how you assign fault, how you understand cause—someone is always catching fire, losing a limb, or being maimed.