But so often I had approached that window myself

The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud
8 min @ Wychwood Public Library

It took Hannah longer than she’d anticipated to navigate the purchase of a one-way ticket. The French don’t say ‘one way’, they say ‘unique sense’. They surely were a peculiar lot, but she liked that ‘ticket window’ had it’s own word – ‘guichet’ not ‘fenetre de billets’. She liked that using the right words made meaning unmistakably clear. She squeezed the telegram tightly. The words jumbled together in her mind – mother, gone, come. She hated Travis’ weak words.