I watched him reach up on top of a shelf and take hold of something long and brown to bring down just as I heard Karen say, “Hi! I’m here,” as she opened the screened door to step in.

I turned to look at her with a big smile when I heard a loud noise like a car muffler’s pop and then saw Karen fall back onto the cement, never getting inside the door.

In retrospect, it seemed that when the ball of death started rolling, it wasn’t going to stop. But we didn’t realize the ball started rolling with Charlotte, and it would gain such disastrous momentum.

Agony. That was my name, not a condition in which I suffered. At least toward the end. When I decided I needed to change my name. Because I was tired of not only feeling bad but being the brunt of nasty people’s jokes. And having my mother’s boyfriends’ needs for making my name meaningful.