3
The accident had not been Lila Merchant’s fault, nor her daughter’s, who was driving the car.
Elisa Merchant was forty-one when she died. A white Ford pickup came barreling through the intersection, never slowed down, and hit Elisa’s car broadside on the driver’s side. Elisa had died at the scene.
Lila, her mother, escaped with very minor injuries.
On the outside.
But reading about the horrible accident, Winnie saw a flash again: of Lila Merchant lying in bed in her faded lavender nightgown, curled in on herself with her arms crossed over her belly. She was crying. Sobbing.
Winnie could see what looked like a hard, dark burgundy ball in the center of Lila’s abdomen. Almost as if old blood had congealed there and remained.
Lila’s legs were drawn up and the top of her body curled fo
