Joyce Carol Oates

Early shift is 6:30 A.M. which was when I arrived at the elder care facility at Eau Claire where I have been an orderly for two years. Maybe thirty minutes after that, when the elderly nuns body was discovered in her bed.

Marissa was eleven years old. Marissa had not hidden from her mother to make Mommy seek her out giggling and squealing with excitement in a very long time.

“Marissa? Are you hiding?”

“Marissa? Aren’t you … are you home?”

So quiet! The mother, beginning to shiver, understood why the daughter hated quiet.

They would accuse her. In the tabloids they would crucify her.

Dial 911 and your life is public fodder. Dial 911 and your life is not yours. Dial 911 and your life is forever changed.

Suburban Single Mom. Latchkey Daughter.

Eleven-Year-Old Missing, South Skatskill.

RAY CASEY WAS DRINKING

The enemy. Waiting for you. When you leave the hospital

I did not like these Russian dolls, that made me feel slightly sick. I thought of how a woman carries a baby inside her and how terrifying it would be if that baby carried another baby inside it.

For here is the injustice: only if you are killed, are you “innocent.” If you fight for your life, you are “guilty.”