Susan Straight's new memoir, In the Country of Women, is out August 2019 from Catapult. The story included here is part of a new collection, Mecca. Her novels include Highwire Moon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001), A Million Nightingales (Anchor Books, 2006), and Between Heaven and Here (McSweeney's, 2012). Her short fiction has been awarded the O. Henry Prize and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Story.