Journal Entry
From the journal of Minnow Gray
My mother took her own life using the same pills they gave her to treat the depression she couldn’t climb out of. Something
about that seems very wrong to me. I was at school and Billy Jo, her friend from the art gallery, found her in the bathtub
with all the life drained out of her. They were supposed to have lunch together and I know Billy Jo was worried about Mom—everyone
was. She said that when Mom didn’t come to the door, she had this horrible feeling that she should come in and check.
Billy Jo came to the school and they pulled me out of art class. At first I was excited to think I could leave early, but
then I saw the haunted look on Billy Jo’s face. There was no note, no goodbye, and I was left with only my memories of my
mother and this preternatural sense that I was suddenly very, very alone. Not in the physical sense, because even back then
I loved being alone, but my heart felt completely untethered to any other living hearts. The only source of love I’d known
was gone forever. All along I thought it broke me, but now I’m beginning to realize it made me stronger.