Her goal was to silence Catherine""s "dreadful obscene babbling" about how and why her son died during a summer vacation trip with him to Spain ("Fantastic delusions and fantastic babblings of an unspeakable nature, mostly taking the form of hideous attacks on he moral character of my son, Sebastian").The story is based on the book of the same name from Sally Benson""s memoirs of her life in St.Louis, Missouri from 1903-4 - they were recalled and written in multiple issues ofThe New Yorker Magazinefrom 1941-1942 (originally published under the itle "5135 Kensington" and eventually gathered together asThe Kensington Stories).They said I had something loose in my heart.In the elevator ride to the 12th floor where he works - the ill-named Pacific All-Risk Insurance Company (founded 1906), a pale and haggard Neff leans against the elevator wall, somewhat in pain.Nobody has lived there for a long time, except Angu Ayah who""s always been there and stays on as caretaker.