Carolina Miller is nothing like either her mother or her sister Ginny and Georgia. She's grateful toward her mother knowing very little of what their mother has actually done for them, but she's grieving and trying to move on from a history that lea...
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Carolina was sleeping unrestfully, due to another nightmare, and when she heard Georgia's horrified "No!!!!!!!" at sunrise, she startled awake, worried that she would be waking to a living nightmare.
Georgia ran into the darkened room toward her daughter. "Carolina. Caro, wake up!"
"I'm awake," Carolina told her. "Haven't been able to sleep much. What's wrong?"
Georgia tilted her head up. "Is there a hair? I can sorta feel it if I do this, but I can't see it."
Carolina checked the time. "You really wanna do this at 5 AM, Mom?"
Georgia handed Caro a pair of tweezers. "Come on. Caro, I'm serious. Is there a hair?"
Carolina sat up, tired. "Jesus, hang on."
"Come on, hurry," Georgia told her.
Carolina turned on the lamp next to them so she could see. "No, there's..." She looked closer, seeing the hair. "Oh."
"What?" Georgia asked.
Carolina smiled. "Yeah, there's a hair. Wow, it's really long."
Georgia put the tweezers in her hand. "Pluck it! It's my first day." Carolina smiled, reaching for the hair as she brought the tweezers closer carefully. "I can't show up all Chewbacca!"
"Is this about Paul, the mayor, your new boss?" Carolina asked.
"No," Georgia answered. "It's about the fact that aging is a horrible, inevitable death sentence where your body betrays you slowly till you die. Pluck it." Carolina smirked, rolling her eyes. "If I could skin you or Ginny and wear your prepubescent faces, I would."
"If you want me to get this, stop talking, Chewbacca," Carolina replied. "Can't get it with you talking." Georgia angled her head up so Carolina could pluck the hair with the tweezers. "Got it."
Georgia lowered her head right next to Carolina's as they both looked at the hair. "Oh, this really bums me out."
Carolina chuckled.
Her mother knew she was beautiful. And she guarded her beauty like someone was trying to break in and steal it.
Georgia would say, "For a woman, life is a battle. And beauty is a goddamn machine gun. I never go anywhere without my face on. If they can see where your makeup ends and your face begins, you've done it wrong. It's a face, not a mask. You have to blend."
Carolina and Ginny knew about masks. Their masks never came off. Moving around all the time, they were too white for the black kids and not white enough for the white kids. They never really had friends. Caro was more than okay with that, she was okay with being alone, being in solidarity, especially what happened with Noah and Bullet the year before. But Ginny wasn't okay with it. She wanted friends, and she wanted to please her new so-called friends and wanted them to like her, no matter the price or consequence.
