Hillbilly Elegy

chairs. I’m there alone with Lindsay and
Mamaw, when all of a sudden Mom
charges through the room, tossing tables
and chairs as she goes. She screams, but
her voice is robotic and distorted, as if
filtered through radio static. Mamaw and
Lindsay run for a hole in the floor—
presumably the exit ladder from the tree
house. I fall behind, and by the time I
reach the exit, Mom is just behind me. I
wake up, right as she’s about to grab me,
when I realize not just that the monster
has caught me but that Mamaw and
Lindsay have abandoned me.
In different versions, the antagonist
changes form. It has been a Marine
Corps drill instructor, a barking dog, a