My earliest memory of my mom is overhearing her tell my dad to take her out into the woods and shoot her. I don't know how old I was. Three? Four? Young enough that I was still calling elephants "Bo-Bos." Young enough that I thought my rocking horse came to life at night. I was lying in the bed I shared with my baby sister, in the first house we all lived in together, the one down by the railroad tracks, too hot to sleep (it was always too hot to sleep), flipping my pillow over and over so I could feel the cool side against my cheek. Her wail ripped through the thick, Georgia summertime air. Why don't you just take me out into the woods and shoot me?!
The front door slammed and everything went quiet.
I flipped my pillow. Flipped it ag...
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