I Gave Away the Birthday Chocolates, Then the Screaming Started

a medicated sleep, I drove home in a fog.

I did not go to bed.

I tore through my kitchen like a person searching a crime scene. The chocolates were gone, eaten. But the packaging was not.

I found the gift bag under my sink where I had shoved it without thinking. Inside, the thick cream tissue paper still held the faint imprint of the box’s corners. The continue reading …