Summary

Lyla – While being driven past the Embers on her way home from a treatment, the author sees a woman she identifies with Lyla, the imagined inhabitant of the Embers Motor Lodge, and startles her husband with her shout of surprise. She imagines more details of “Lyla’s” life, finding herself identifying with aspects of what she imagines: “there is no future. There is only this” (266).

The Anniversary – In the summer, the author and her family gather at the family summer house to mark the anniversary of the death of the author’s mother, she and her family all feeling Jan’s absence, and presence, in different ways. A few months later, the author’s father’s dog has to be put down, and a veterinarian arrives to perform the procedure at home. While there, she mistakes the author for her mother...