Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

The narrator, Sally Holt, addresses her older sister, Kathy Holt, stating: “You disappeared on a school night” (3). Writing to Kathy after her death, Sally recalls their shared childhood in suburban Connecticut through a series of flashbacks. She remembers their nightly routine of laying out school clothes in the bedroom they shared, where their names are spelled in glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling—a compromise after Kathy insisted the ceiling could never be the sky. An old, dying maple tree, rumored to have been planted by Puritans, sits outside their window. Their father, Richard, is a safety-conscious consultant for telephone tower workers, while their mother, Susan, is a former teacher and community leader whose high school boyfriend was killed in the Vietnam War. She met Richard at that boyfriend’s funeral.

The flashbacks trace Kathy’s long-standing infatuation with Billy Barnes, the son of a local florist. The crush begins when Kathy (fourth grade) is paired to dance the “Football Tango” with Billy (fifth grade) for a Thanksgiving celebration, and he compliments her hair. Kathy begins collecting facts about him, learning that his father, Bill, once broke his neck falling from a ladder. The sisters visit Billy’s father’s shop, Bill’s Tree and Garden, taking rose petals as mementos.