I frown. “How can that be? I thought memories were a good thing.”
“They can be good,” she agrees. “But they can also hold you captive in a reality that has come and gone. Good memories can cause you to long for a past that simply no longer exists. And you’ll long for it so much you stop living in the present. That’s how memories become an addiction. Bad memories can become so familiar they’re almost like an old blanket. The blanket is ratty, dirty, and moth-eaten, but it’s also comfortable because it’s all you’ve known. To let it go means stepping out into the unknown.”
I can hear the anguish in her voice, and I wonder what memories have become an addiction to her. Thankfully, Etta speaks before I can put my foot in my mouth by asking a question I have no business receiving the answer to
