Patricia Wants to Cuddle

by Samantha Allen

But these days, I know that Katherine isn’t gone—not really. I hear her voice every time I put an extra cube of sugar in my tea or kill a slug eating my dahlias. I catch myself putting out a plate for her at dinner, and then I do it anyway. I don’t think of her as being ‘dead’ anymore, so much as different. Still here, just … unseen.”