In Her Skin by Kim Savage

Author:Kim Savage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

PART II

TEMPLE

“Boston, May 2010. Two girls, both nine. The streets are filled with wine-buzzed lovers. Packs of graduates having one last night out before everyone scatters. Expensive cars driven by European students heading to Newbury Street for drinks before going to the clubs. In her room, the mother sprays perfume that drifts in front of the cold fireplace where the girls sit in pajamas, bowl of popcorn at their feet, mollifying Disney show already on. It is a room the parents make excuses for: plastic covers a square in the wall, an unsightly hole made by their contractor. The parents are young and their lives are exciting. A new deal has been inked, a deal that means enough money to commence their plan of buying the empty brownstone for sale next door, gutting it and expanding. They want to celebrate. They want to forget for a night that their nine-year-old daughter tries to control them by pitching a fit every time they leave her with a sitter. Fits that they joke with their friends about, leaving out the scratches and the bruises and the mortal threats.

“The friend keeps the girl happy. She is the daughter of European friends on the same block, quality people who do not parent like hovering aircraft the way American parents do. The girl is usually content with this friend: a meek, compliant girl who lives happily in the other girl’s shadow. The parents are optimistic. All week the sleepover was the carrot for good behavior. Sleepovers are supposed to be fun, not occasions for hysterics.

“The father’s heavy footsteps, oily fingerprints on his pants from the girl clinging to his legs, desperate for him to stay. Swears from the father, soothing words from the mother, a change of pants. She is nine, for goodness’ sake. The friend is used to the girl’s outbursts, but she is still embarrassed, and pretends to be deeply interested in the Disney show, her nose nearly touching the TV. The girl grows quiet, a slow, controlled burn. The mother takes away the popcorn: choking hazard. Phone numbers are left, promises are made to return early. They will be just one door over, visible from the window of Daddy’s office. They will request a seat on the patio, and the girls can wave to them from the window.

“Doors are locked from the outside. Behind the door, the parents exchange sighs of relief and hold hands. It will be fine. She cannot control their lives. They are good parents. They’re no farther away than if they were sitting on their own front steps and the girls were inside. Inside, the friend wants to play with their American Girl dolls, hers brought for the occasion, a little blond doppelgänger with hard cheeks. The girl has no interest. The girl walks to the father’s darkened office and stares out at the patio, at her parents being seated by a hostess, at her parents looking into each other’s eyes, and never once looking up and waving at the window, like they’d promised.

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