April 2004, Derby, England
April 2004, Derby, EnglandI stared at my friend with wide eyes, scarcely able to believe what she was telling me. Marnie had woven a spell with her words and taken me from her bedroom, where we were ensconced whispering to each other, to somewhere quite fantastical yet also familiar.
Marnie and I had known each other since the January of the year before, when we met at a group therapy session for anorexic teenagers. My struggles with food and the consuming of it began in the months after my sisters disappeared. I often felt too anxious and guilty to eat as much as I wished. How could I stuff my face when I had no idea if Leonie and Sophie had enough to eat or clean water to drink? How did I know they had not starved to death long ago?
This unhappiness might ha
