Everyone dated the demise of our neighborhood from the suicide of
the Lisbon girls.People saw their clairvoyance in the wiped-out
elms and harsh sunlight.Some thought the torture tearing the
Lisbon girls pointed to a simple refusal to accept the world as
it was handed down to them:So full of flaws.But the only thing we
are certain of after all these years is the insufficiency of
explanations. "Obviously doctor, you've never been a
thirteen year-old girl." The Lisbon girls were 13, Cecile, 14,
Lux, 15, Bonnie, 16, Mary, and 17, Therese.No one could
understand how Mrs. Lisbon and Mr. Lisbon, a math teacher, had
produced such beautiful creatures. From that time one, the
Lisbon house began to change.Almost every day, and even when she
wasn't keeping an eye on Cecilia,Lux would suntan on her
towel wearing a swimsuit that caused the knife-sharpener to give
her a 15-minute demonstration for free. The only reliable boy who
got to know Lux was Trip FontaineFor only 18 months before the
suicides had emerged from baby fatTo the delight of girls and
mothers alike. But few anticipated it would be so drastic.The
girls were pulled out of school, and Mrs. Lisbon shut the house
for maximum security isolation.The girls' only contact to
the outside world was through the catalogsThey ordered that
started to fill the Lisbon's mailbox with pictures of
high-end fashions and brochures for exotic vacations.Unable to
go anywhere, the girls traveled in their imaginations:To
gold-tipped Siamese temples or past an old man, the leaf broom
tidying the [Maw's] carpeted [speck] of Japan (???).And
Cecelia hadn't died.She was a bride in Calcutta. Collecting
everything we could of theirs, we couldn't get the Lisbon
girls out of our minds, but they were slipping away.The colors
of their eyes were fading, along with exact locations of moles
and dimples.From five, they had become four, and they were all
(the living and the dead), become shadows.We would have lost
them completely if the girls hadn't contacted us. Lux was
the last to go.Fleeing from the house, we forgot to stop at the
garage.After the suicide free-for-all, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon gave
up any attempt to lead a normal life.They had Mr. Henry pack up
the house, selling what furniture he could at a garage
sale.Everyone went just to look.Our parents did not buy used
furniture, and they certainly didn't buy furniture tainted
by death.We of course took the family photos that were put out
with the trash.Mr. Lisbon put the house on the market, and it
was sold to a young couple from Boston. It didn't matter in
the end how old they had been, or that they were girls.But only
that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us call;
still did not hear us.Calling out of those rooms where they went
to be alone for all time, alone in suicide.Which is deeper than
death, and where we will never find the pieced to put them back
together.
Send "Suicide Underground" Ringtone to your Cell 
