Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:06 PM
she literally ironed her hair
I was half an hour into the life of a young adult with pink eye shadow, pink lipstick and pink earrings before it occurs to me. I would sit with her for another half an hour before I let her be the 'bitter truth' she was supposed to be.
They showed me a picture of a tiny her in dark blue overalls with a white butterfly on her fingers and then soon after she walks down the tracks in a field waving impossible signs at men behind barb wires. She's supposed to be the mommy with four little children holding on to every free side of her skirt but she's in here, kissing the foreheads of her little babies in pictures taken much too long ago.
This would never have been if the neighborhood was safe. If her father had not started up the violence that would soon devour his entire family and with it, other families. To know that he admits to not knowing any of the younger generation gang members or even care about what happens to them is ridiculous. He's old and can barely keep his head up but still does not admit to being silly.
She knows that she's only loyal to a name and yet she risks securing freedom over arranging for the murder of a disloyal member. She puts her family on the line to be loyal to the name that defined her for almost a decade of her life.
As I follow her and watch her hide secret messages in food trays, I pray she gets hit in the head by an invisible force, goes into a deep sleep for a week only to wake up just in time to sign her parole papers. But there she was, still writing away to another member about 'instructions'.
I was rooting for her with all my heart.
Because I realised under different circumstances, it could've easily been me up on that screen under lockdown.
minx wrote at11:06 PM
