Thomas Wictor

I’m the opposite of shocked.

What did you think she was trying to say with all this? That she’s happy, of sound mind, and serene?

Her expression in the last photo tells you all you need to know.

The painter Egon Schiele said, “Everything is dead while it lives.”

Not everything, just those in certain milieus. The dead walk among us. And they have endless ways of being dead. What they all have in common is a need to spread their death. The adjective “thanatoid” means both deathlike and deadly. Consorting with corpses will kill you.

The impact of a million dollars
Is a crash of flunkeys,
And yawning emblems of Persia
Cheeked against oak, France and a sabre,
The outcry of old beauty
Whored by pimping merchants
To submission before wine and chatter.

—Stephen Crane

I’m sorry, baby-girl. Best of luck.