In this story someone dies. Maybe they are already dead. You don’t know yet who dies or if they are already dead. That’s part of the trick. It’s very tricky.

In this story someone also loves a terrible person. It’s not clear why they don’t know that this person is terrible and we do. But that’s part of the charm of this story. They love because they are a decent person who embraces the quirks of strangers, unlike us, who are into this story because we are the sort of people who judge others and their decisions including their poor choice in whom to trust; who wake at night and stalk the kitchen in bare feet and use whiskey as a soporific; who watch “The Great British Baking Show” semi-ironically but can’t get past the endless first season and now require new entertainment having to do with the lives of others but in a way that we feel urbane but also a little connected to our own humanity. We laugh out loud sometimes. Not just the inside wry smile-laugh but loud and boisterous. Har har. We are not that bad. Just proved it.

You’ve guessed already who is already dead or about to die and who loves a terrible person, haven’t you? You are clever but also kind. This story confirms that.

***

Carly Berwick is a writer based in Jersey City, NJ, and has published stories in Hobart, Subnivean, and Bowery Gothic.