Fear
She “lay in bed,” her breath “shallow” as she stared at the closed door. “Waiting for the intruders,” the horrors she imagined started “taking human shape and populating the room.” There would be “no heroics,” she understood. “Just the dull terror, the physical pain that would have to be suffered through.” She wouldn’t try to run. She only gout out of bed after she heard the girl. Her voice was “high and innocuous.” The irony was that “it shouldn’t have been comforting – Suzanne and the others had been girls, and that hadn’t helped anyone.” Cruelness has nothing to do with either sex or gender.
Not perfect
Evie “believed everything the girls told” her that day, “their buzzy, swarming pride as they spoke of Russell’s brilliance.” They were sure that “pretty soon he wouldn’t be able to walk down the street without getting mobbed.” He would be able “to tell the whole world how to be free.” It was also true that Mitch “had set up a recording session for Russell.” “Thinking maybe Mitch’s label would find Russell’s vibe interesting and of the moment.” The irony was that the session “had gone badly, the failure legendary.” Russell just tricked them into believing that he was flawless.
The main concern
Evie “prepared for possible sightings” of her mother with “pious ablutions.” She “showered, standing in the hot water” until her skin “splotched red,” her hair “slippery with conditioner.” She put “a plain T-shirt and white cotton shorts,” that she might have worn when she was younger, trying to appear “scrubbed and sexless enough” to comfort her mother. The irony was that she “didn’t need to try so hard,” for Jean wasn’t “looking closely enough to warrant the effort.”
