Break-In: Memoir of an Evening

In Joan Cory's short memoir, a small-town policeman visits one Sunday evening, setting off emotions not wholly connected with the man standing at the door and his story of her spouse implicated in an out-of-state offense. Why does this feel like a fight for her family, the small children getting ready for bed and her husband out of the house? The cloud hanging over this meeting reflects a past tragedy, not a current one. Distant memory haunts her in a way she's not understood clearly before this night.