Girl,Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen(extract)

                                 
                         Girl Interrupted at Her Music by Johannes Vermeer

"It was a beautiful October day in New York.He had attacked and I had comforted and now we were ready to go out.
"Let's go to the Frick,"he said.
"I've never been there,"I said.Then I thought maybe I had been.I didn't say anything;I'd learned not to discuss my doubts.
When we got there I recognized it."Oh,"I said."There's a painting I love here."
"Only one?"he said."Look at these Fragonards."
I didn't like them.I left the Fragonards behind and walked into the hall leading to the courtyard.
She had changed a lot in sixteen years.She was no longer urgent.In fact,she was sad.She was young and distracted,and her teacher was bearing down on her,trying to get her to pay attention.But she was looking out,looking for someone who would see her.
This time I read the title of the painting:Girl Interrupted at Her Music.
Interrupted at her music:as my life had been,interrupted in the music of being seventeen,as her life had been,snatched and fixed on canvas:one moment made to stand still and to stand for all the other moments,whatever they would be or might have been.What life can recover from that?
I had something to tell her now."I see you",I said.

Girl,Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen(extract)