It came to her then with a horrible whoosh of the crescendo of truth: She had failed on a colossal level. She must have been failing for years and not realized it. She did not have a family as other people did. Other people had their children come and stay and they talked and laughed […]

”When I was young,” Mrs. Kitteridge said, holding her sunglasses in her hand, ”—little, you know—I’d hide in the wood box when my father came home. And he’d sit down on the wood box and say, ’Where’s Olive? Where can Olive be?’ This would go on, till I’d knock on the side, and he’d act […]