Entry tags:
Strongest woman you knew.
Suki knew the traditional answer. You were supposed to say your mother, or your grandmother, something like that.
Suki never met Obaasan, and Grandmother Barbara with her proper ways didn’t impress her. Her mother was close to the answer.
The real answer, which Suki would only give like this, half-drunk and leaning against Tej’s shoulder while he tangled his fingers in her hair, was Mrs. Abernathy.
She’d worn a lot of makeup. A lot of subtle makeup, which hadn’t made any sense to Suki -- makeup was to be seen in, to flaunt, to be shiny and bright and colorful. What was the point of all the earth tones on so thick? Like she hadn’t wanted to be seen at all.
Not that she’d seen Mrs. Abernathy very often. Not that anybody had, at least not without her husband.
Suki hadn’t understood why she’d stopped wearing makeup after her husband got arrested, or why suddenly she started showing up at all the parties she hadn’t gone to before.
Suki understood now. She wasn’t seven anymore. And she had her own crew, these days -- she hoped it wasn’t ever necessary, because Suki would really hate to lose a heel by breaking it in some pendejo’s face, but she hoped her crew would be as strong as Mrs. Abernathy had been. Hoped she would be.
Suki never met Obaasan, and Grandmother Barbara with her proper ways didn’t impress her. Her mother was close to the answer.
The real answer, which Suki would only give like this, half-drunk and leaning against Tej’s shoulder while he tangled his fingers in her hair, was Mrs. Abernathy.
She’d worn a lot of makeup. A lot of subtle makeup, which hadn’t made any sense to Suki -- makeup was to be seen in, to flaunt, to be shiny and bright and colorful. What was the point of all the earth tones on so thick? Like she hadn’t wanted to be seen at all.
Not that she’d seen Mrs. Abernathy very often. Not that anybody had, at least not without her husband.
Suki hadn’t understood why she’d stopped wearing makeup after her husband got arrested, or why suddenly she started showing up at all the parties she hadn’t gone to before.
Suki understood now. She wasn’t seven anymore. And she had her own crew, these days -- she hoped it wasn’t ever necessary, because Suki would really hate to lose a heel by breaking it in some pendejo’s face, but she hoped her crew would be as strong as Mrs. Abernathy had been. Hoped she would be.