1. All four humors are out of whack.
2. May be experiencing menstruation and, as such, advised against standing.
3. In the event a man impregnates me, I will likely be dead by then.
4. Simply can’t find my good tooth.
5. The apparition of a tubercular boy whose soul is bound to mine makes it impossible to obtain a visa.
6. After inquiring about local politics, I was diagnosed by the family doctor with an overactive mind and prescribed a rest cure until the foreseeable future.
7. Sea salt air is harsh on acidic bones.
8. Father says temperament isn’t well-suited to “too balmy of climates.”
9. Every evening I stare beyond the cliff’s edge, waiting for my long-lost brother to return from sea. I fear the one weekend I am gone for your wedding will be when he returns.
10. The restless Caribbean waves beating against the shore suggest a more profound truth of how trapped I am in a life of domesticity dictated by societal norms that I neither help define nor benefit from.
11. Hotel is not cemetery-adjacent for daily sojourns.
12. Local parish prohibits traveling because it can lead to forming an identity.
13. The warm sea air makes me cold. So very cold.
14. Grandfather had a clause in his will forbidding general revelry.
15. My plus one died in The War.
16. Couldn’t possibly.