People do love a good story.'Yes, a story. We are of course a good story. My hands slip and suddenly my coffee is on the kitchen floor, pooling in the cracked linoleum. I grab for a paper towel to mop it up and knock over the sugar canister. The old sour feeling settles in the corner of my chest, a familiar sensation that comes with being the town tragedy. A mother who drowned herself, a father dead from grief, a young man raising his sister alone.
-- Mr. Churchwarry, Simon (Three)

Importance: Simon tries to distance himself from the tragedy of his family, choosing a quiet, calm, non-dramatic life as a librarian. However, he cannot distance himself from the dramatic nature of his family lineage, the details of which Simon lists out more like a story than his own actual history. Simon may do this as a way to distance himself from the emotions of...