Abyss

“If you looked at her on the outside, she was still the same person.”

Claudia notices her mother has two very different faces. One is for the world and the other is for her private shadows.

“The plants were so large and so green that they seemed to be breathing.”

The jungle in Cali feels like a living thing that wants to swallow the house. Everything is overgrown and damp and slightly dangerous.

Kids see everything even when adults think they are hiding. Claudia tracks her mother's moods like a weather report.

That supermarket scene felt so heavy. Her mother just stood there while the world kept moving around her.