Special Topics in Calamity Physics

NOTES

1. A pallor hinting at acute insomnia, melancholy or the unknown illness that necessitated her having a small pharmacy in her bathroom cabinet.

2. A bearing that mimicked the stiff Quaker chair in the corner of her bedroom.

3. The tired and contemplative look on Hannah’s face gave her an odd sort of fill-in-the-blankness, which made me wonder if my initial suspicions had been incorrect, that she was, in fact, that little round-eyed girl in the three framed photographs positioned on that bureau. And yet, why would she put those photos on display? The absence of her mother or father in the pictures seemed to indicate she wasn’t on the cheeriest of terms with them. Yet Dad said happy photos on exhibition as a representation of deep feeling was a facile assumption; he said if a person was so insecure he/she had to have constant reassurance of all “gay ol’ times,” well, then “the sentiments obviously weren’t all that profound to begin with.” For the record, there were no framed pictures of me around our house, and the only class portrait Dad had ever ordered was the one from Sparta Elementary in which I’d sat, knees glued together, in front of a background that looked like Yosemite, sporting pink overalls and a lazy eye. “This is classic,” Dad said. “That they shamelessly send me an order form so I can pay $69.95 for prints large and small of a photo in which my daughter looks as if she just suffered a great blow to her head — it just shows you, we are simply strapped to a motorized assembly line moving through this country. We’re supposed to pay out, shut up or get tossed in the rejects bin.”

I suggest using a No. 2 pencil on the off chance you make a mistake in your initial perceptions and, provided you have a little bit of time left, wish to change your answer.

1. I suggest using a No. 2 pencil on the off chance you make a mistake in your initial perceptions and, provided you have a little bit of time left, wish to change your answer.