Beatriz is the only one of my six daughters who ever telephoned her mother.

She did it at eighteen, from Reno, twice.

Both calls were short and both of them were bad and she has never told me what was said, and she came back from the second one and did not speak for four days.

She is also, by a distance, the most opposed to Maren being anywhere near any of us.

She was the loudest voice against the wedding invitation and she said, in a group text in April, in a message I still have: if she comes I’m not coming. not being dramatic. just cant.

Both of those are the same person.