Please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts.” “Sir, the sign is on, please buckle up, we’re entering turbulence.” “Thank you, I’m so sorry. I didn’t notice it.” If you ever have a child, don’t give it a dead person’s name. Give your child a name without a past, Amalia. “Me? Have a child? You’re talking craziness again, Jonathan.” * * * She was lying on the couch, it was in the afternoon and we’d just got back from school, she was dozing. She had already changed her name. She had begun to drink like a fiend. She kept stashing little bottles—so that they’d fit anywhere—of whiskey in the bathroom, in the throw pillows, in your room. One day, “What’s this?” you asked, you didn’t know. You found a little bottle in the belly of one of your dolls. “It’s nothing,” said Grandma. She snatched the bottle from your hands.
