"Where am I from?" Agnes said it softly. "Iowa." She had a tendency not to speak up.

"Where?" The woman scowled, bewildered.

"Iowa," Agnes repeated loudly.

The woman in black touched Agnes' wrist and leaned in confidentially. She moved her mouth in a concerned and exaggerated way, like a facial exercise. "No, dear," she said. "Here we say O-hi-o."

 -- "Agnes of Iowa", Lorrie Moore

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