The Impossible Knife of Memory

Hayley Kincain, a 17-year-old high school student, sits in detention. She is supposed to be writing “‘I will not be disrespectful to Mr. Diaz’ five hundred times” (1). She thinks, “I [don’t] belong in detention, I [don’t] belong in this school” (2). She argues with the teacher supervising detention, and other students stare.

Hayley explains that “zombies” and “freaks” are the only kinds of people in the world. She says that “everyone is born a freak” (3); a freak “wants to have a good time and make the world a better place” (3). Kids can remain freaks with a loving family, but in high school they turn into zombies. Instead of writing her assigned sentences, Hayley writes, “Correcting a teacher’s mistake is not a sign of disrespect” (4).

Hayley misses the bus and has to walk the four miles home. She passes through a rundown neighborhood. She sees two stoned men and feels threatened. She walks by them with forced confidence. She assesses the situation and decides she will let them take her backpack and either run or wave down the bus. She also sees a whiskey bottle on the ground and thinks about how she could break it into a weapon as her “last defensive option” (7).