Laura Kasischke: Mind of Winter

CAREFUL NOT TO disturb her, Holly pulled the coverlet over her daughter’s shoulder, patted it down gently, caressed her shining hair with the lightest of touches. Then she bent down and picked up her phone from the floor and held it to her own ear:

“Hello?” she asked, but the connection had been cut between herself and Thuy by then, and Holly was sorry about that. Tatiana would have loved to have talked to Thuy, to Pearl, to Patty. Tatiana loved Christmas. She loved to say Merry Christmas to her family, to her friends.

Holly turned around, leaned over Tatiana in her bed, slipped the iPhone into her daughter’s hand, and folded the stiff fingers around it, just in case Thuy called back, and then she tiptoed out of her daughter’s room, closing the door very quietly behind her.

DATE OF DEATH: December 25, 20--

TIME OF DEATH: Approximate 7:30-8:30 a.m.

DECEDENT: Tatiana Bonnie Clare

AGE: 15

PARENTS OF DECEDENT < 25: Holly E. Judge/Eric M. Clare

LOCATION OF DEATH: Decedent’s Domicile/11-- Great Forest Road/----- ------

---------, Michigan 49---

CAUSE OF DEATH: Myocardial Infarction Due to Heritable Congenital Defect/Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

NOTES: Father returns to domicile approx 8:45 p.m. after blizzard delay/family emergency. Finds mother distraught/unresponsive in living room. Several minutes later finds daughter deceased in bedroom. At first suspects homicide. Signs of struggle: Broken glasses/dishes/food and clothing strewn about premises. Mother insists daughter is alive/will not leave room. Speaks of intruder described as teenaged girl. “Sally.” “From Russia.” Notebook/recent writing/references to being “followed.” (Acute stress-related psychosis?) Violence/home invasion ruled out by police. Decedent’s clothes changed repeatedly by mother throughout day postmortem. Decedent “force fed,” & moved repeatedly from room to room throughout day postmortem. Mother remains under observation.

For assistance and support of all kinds, I am eternally grateful to Bill Abernethy, Jack Abernethy, Lucy Abernethy, Lisa Bankoff, Dominique Bourgois, Antonya Nelson, Katherine Nintzel, Carrie Wilson, and Olga Zilberbourg.

LAURA KASISCHKEteaches in the MFA program and at the Residential College at the University of Michigan. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, she has published eight collections of poetry and nine novels, two of which have been made into films, including The Life Before Her Eyes . She lives in Chelsea, Michigan.

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The Raising

In a Perfect World

Feathered

Boy Heaven

The Life Before Her Eyes

White Bird in a Blizzard

Suspicious River

Space, In Chains

Lilies Without

Gardening in the Dark

Dance and Disappear

What It Wasn’t

Fire & Flower

Housekeeping in a Dream

Wild Brides

Cover design by Amanda Kain

Cover photographs: © Edward Carlile Portraits/Getty Images (woman);

Barnaby Hall/Getty Images (snow)

MIND OF WINTER. Copyright © 2014 by Laura Kasischke. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN: 978-0-06-228439-6

EPUB Edition April 2014

ISBN 9780062284419

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