Indifference Is a Cursed Heirloom

THE REMAINING LISBON sister are sprawled in their bedroom when the priest knocks on their door.

“Hello girls, I thought we could talk. Do you feel like talking?”

Their returning stares are vacant and unknowable, and the priest wears only the pretense of concern. Both parties maintain their false decorum, neither fully able to acknowledge their shared grief: the suicide of Cecilia, the youngest Lisbon sister, only 13 years old.