I was an outsider to an evening that was filled with laughter, pizza, and fights over what we would be watching, an interloper to their happy vacation. Fear held me back—fear that I would spoil the fun, and say something wrong. I had come on this trip to escape, but it seemed grief was not easily left behind.
The sound of my nieces’ giggles and whispered conversations finally died down just after midnight. From my room, I could hear Beatrice and Bill's quiet conversation in the living room, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
After claiming a headache, I retreated to my room fairly early in the evening. Now, I lay staring at the deeper darkness that was the ceiling, waiting for sleep to claim me.
I was beginning to regret my decision to come. I knew Beatrice had asked me o
