[Beginning in media res in mother’s house.]
[Sufficiently dramatic exposition with an obvious, planted echo to the story’s climax.]
[Flashback serving to illuminate character that could have been filtered through the present action.]
[Unsatisfying cliffhanger.]
[Disorienting scene break.]
[Re-introduction to protagonist’s mother.]
[Quirky habit of mind revealed.]
[Sudden realization that protagonist’s father is to blame for much of the present narrative.]
[Jarring shift to present action.]
[Jarring shift back to flashback.]
[Second disorienting scene break.]
[Broken vase.]
[Flash forward to an undisclosed time.]
[Shards from broken vase somehow still on the floor.]
[Dialogue unattributed to any character.]
[Blame placed firmly on protagonist.]
[Extensive description of the shock this brings.]
[The vague mention of a “past life.”]
[Jarring scene break.]
[Protagonist steps in shards of vase—which no longer exist in time or space—triggering flashback to an old home.]
[Blood as symbol.]
[Photo as symbol.]
[Some other stuff that’s likely symbolic.]
[Prolonged description of wind, grass, and moon.]
[A strong sentence that makes the rest of the story look awful.]
[Father’s affair revealed.]
[Money problems.]
[Shouting.]
[Question about health of mother/father/protagonist.]
[Accidental, though still jarring scene break.]
[Continued shouting.]
[Flashback to description of traumatic high school experience.]
[Flash forward to broken vase.]
[Flash somehow sideways to previously unmentioned sibling.]
[Image of siblings playing together as children.]
[Father’s apology.]
[Mention of silence.]
[Planted echo from opening returning in gratingly apparent metaphor.]
[Photo of the broken vase, conflating symbols into one mega-symbol.]
[Car scene, intensely muted.]
[Brief dialogue alluding to a lack of direction.]
[Jarring scene break.]
[Flashback to protagonist cleaning up broken vase.]
[Father seen through a window on a rainy day.]
[Epiphany.]
[Ellipses.]
[A gaping mouth, a jaw examined in the act of dropping.]
[Siblings holding hands.]
[Image of the sun, invocation of a distant night.]