A Slow Fire Burning

Carla packs for a trip, planning to go abroad. She debates whether or not to tell Theo that she is going away; she didn’t like the draft of his novel that he shared with her. Carla thinks back to a time about a year before Angela died: Daniel had come to her house, agitated about a number of problems in his life. Carla and Daniel drank together, and Carla abruptly went to sleep in her room. She woke up to see Daniel sitting near the bed sketching her. In the morning, Daniel asked if he could stay with Carla, but she refused because she didn’t want Theo to know that she had a relationship with her nephew.

Carla also recalls Daniel coming to Angela’s house after his mother’s death. He told her that he was renting a boat, and he collected his notebooks and sketch books. He confirmed with Carla that she hadn’t looked through them and expressed no interest in any of the other items in the house. A short time later, Carla found letters that Angela had written to Daniel’s father, Marcus, when Daniel was a young boy. The letters were returned to Angela unopened; in the letters, Angela expresses her unhappiness, dislike for her son, and pleas for help.