It was Porter who found her on the kitchen floor, knocked into a coma like a starch-crazed Sleeping Beauty. Not that any of us were surprised—it was just the kind of stunt Mama was apt to pull.

I started drinking at the same age I started working, both to kill time and because all the older staff members would take a shot of soju now and again to stifle my mom’s voice or the customers’ shouts over the loud bar music. Besides, no one stopped me.

I’m on my way to Seattle to see this girl I used to hook up with. Back then it was experimentation, but she has since renovated a house with her girlfriend of several years. This is the same person who once said she’d take a random act of sexual violence over domestication.