Summary

“Last Night” is narrated by a woman recalling a teenage stint in a mental hospital where she was placed by her parents after multiple suicide attempts. In the present, as an adult, the narrator is a creative writing teacher and a volunteer at a women's crisis center. The night before she was released from the hospital, she and her two roommates convinced an orderly to help them sneak out of the facility. They found a set of train tracks down the road and began to follow them. In the present, the narrator has spoken multiple times to a free therapist that the women's crisis center provides to all volunteers. She has a script she is supposed to use during calls with desperate women, but it often proves unhelpful. Back in the past, the teenagers walked along the train tracks talking about...