In Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying, the protagonist — a young office worker named Fran (Daisy Ridley) — leads a scheduled life both at work and at home. She reports to her assigned cubicle every morning, sifts through spreadsheet after spreadsheet with quiet finesse, and generally avoids partaking in office chatter. After work, Fran heads home to an equally quiet neighborhood, pouring herself a glass of red wine and whipping up some cottage cheese while tackling a book of Sudokus. Her mother calls, but she does not pick up. Over dinner, Fran gazes out of her window at the mountainous terrain of the Pacific Northwest. She has visions, inexplicably, of herself dying: of her body lying in painterly repose amidst woodlands and beaches, her the subject of eternal finitude. But they’re mere visions, not realities, as Fran duly goes to bed way before midnight and rises way before most of us tend to. A new day beckons, and she’s there to receive it.
Published as part of InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 5.
