Sinking and Swaddled
by Beth Gilstrap
She swore she felt the earth drop—like a hitch in an elevator
—several miles from her mother’s house. She thought of all
those bedlinens agitated, curled, heaped on top of her
mother, sunk along with everything else, beams, roof tiles,
the acrylic nails her mom wore, the senselessness of waste.
Her father had sunk, too. Years ago, in a prefab home out on
the lake. One day the lake rose a mite and the ground dove
a mite and from what her mother said, her father was better
off down there, probably still passed out on his leather
couch. Ona had been swaddled and maneuvered into the
bow of a rowboat and, as legend tells, slept through the
whole affair. Perhaps it was this swaddling she longed for
more than anything with all this terrible sinking going on.
"Sinking and Swaddled" from Deadheading and Other
Stories © Beth Gilstrap. Published by Red Hen Press, 2021.
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which best describes the mood that is created by the
language in this passage?
a. insecure
b. desperate
c. suspenseful
d. optimistic