Hillbilly Elegy

spectator who got a little too close to the
action. This thing that I hated had
become a sort of drug.
One day I came home from school to
see Mamaw’s car in the driveway. It
was an ominous sign, as she never made
unannounced visits to our Preble County
home. She made an exception on this day
because Mom was in the hospital, the
result of a failed suicide attempt. For all
the things I saw happening in the world
around me, my eleven-year-old eyes
missed so much. In her work at
Middletown Hospital, Mom had met and
fallen in love with a local fireman and
begun a years-long affair. That morning
Bob had confronted her about the affair