[Beginning in media res in mother’s house.]

[Sufficiently dramatic exposition with an obvious, planted echo to the story’s climax.]

[Flashback serving to illuminate character that could have been filtered through the present action.]

[Unsatisfying cliffhanger.]

[Disorienting scene break.]

[Re-introduction to protagonist’s mother.]

[Quirky habit of mind revealed.]

[Sudden realization that protagonist’s father is to blame for much of the present narrative.]

[Jarring shift to present action.]

[Jarring shift back to flashback.]

[Second disorienting scene break.]

[Broken vase.]

[Flash forward to an undisclosed time.]

[Shards from broken vase somehow still on the floor.]

[Dialogue unattributed to any character.]

[Blame placed firmly on protagonist.]

[Extensive description of the shock this brings.]

[The vague mention of a “past life.”]

[Jarring scene break.]

[Protagonist steps in shards of vase—which no longer exist in time or space—triggering flashback to an old home.]

[Blood as symbol.]

[Photo as symbol.]

[Some other stuff that’s likely symbolic.]

[Prolonged description of wind, grass, and moon.]

[A strong sentence that makes the rest of the story look awful.]

[Father’s affair revealed.]

[Money problems.]


[Question about health of mother/father/protagonist.]

[Accidental, though still jarring scene break.]

[Continued shouting.]

[Flashback to description of traumatic high school experience.]

[Flash forward to broken vase.]

[Flash somehow sideways to previously unmentioned sibling.]

[Image of siblings playing together as children.]

[Father’s apology.]

[Mention of silence.]

[Planted echo from opening returning in gratingly apparent metaphor.]

[Photo of the broken vase, conflating symbols into one mega-symbol.]

[Car scene, intensely muted.]

[Brief dialogue alluding to a lack of direction.]

[Jarring scene break.]

[Flashback to protagonist cleaning up broken vase.]

[Father seen through a window on a rainy day.]



[A gaping mouth, a jaw examined in the act of dropping.]

[Siblings holding hands.]

[Image of the sun, invocation of a distant night.]