Girl in Pieces

Louisa says, “You’re so quiet. I’m so glad they put somebody quiet with me. You’ve no idea how tedious it is, listening to somebody talk out loud all the time.”

She’d been silent for so long, I thought she was sleeping.

Louisa says, “I mean, I’m talking to you, do you know that? In my head, I mean. I’m telling you all sorts of things in my head, because you seem like you’re a good listener. But I don’t want to take up your thinking space. If that makes sense.”

She makes a sleepy sound. Mmmmm. Then, “I’m going to tell you my whole story. You’re a good egg, a keeper.”

A good egg, a keeper, a good egg, a keeper—a cutter’s nursery song.