Unnamed narrator, "Last Night"

The narrator of "Last Night" is an adult woman reflecting on the time she spent in a mental hospital when she was 17 years old after multiple suicide attempts. In the present, she is a creative writing professor and she also volunteers at a women's crisis center. She explains, "I've spent years cultivating a noisy life" (3), a statement that is literal in the sense that she lives in a loud, vibrant city, but also metaphorical in the sense that she has kept herself busy and therefore distracted from the psychological distress that once caused her to attempt suicide. She mentions seeing a counselor and being advised on the therapeutic value of swimming. She enjoys this activity because it is constructive but it "makes [her] feel obliterated" (7).

Her memories from the mental hospital are vague and represent the detachment she feels from this previous version of herself...