The Unburied Ghost

Delia,

Isabel says love makes women stupid. I think she has it backward.

Love makes women dangerous. That must be why she works so hard to starve it out of this house.

Mother loved Father and ran.

Father loved us and died.

I loved my sister, and it still hurts to breathe around the place where she used to be.

None of that sounds stupid to me.

It sounds expensive, and it sounds dangerous—to Isabel.

There is a difference.