Excerpt: familiar ties

Dominique picked up the faded construction paper box and stared at it. "God, mom, I can't believe you kept this!" "Oh, do you remember that, honey? You were in kindergarten, it was Valentine's Day. Your teacher taught you how to make those boxes and you were so proud. You used red paper and stuck little heart stickers all over it. They fell off cause the glue got old, but I managed to keep the box. You put one of your special little white rocks in there, remember, the ones you used to collect off the back part of the yard?" "Oh my gosh, it's still in there, mom!" "I know, you were so cute!" Marina walked over and hugged Dominique tightly. "I love you sweetie, I'm so happy for you. I hope you have a little girl, too, that would be so great." Dominique pulled back and there was that dark cloud shadowing her face. "And what if it's a boy! What's wrong with that?" Marina felt only a little stunned, she'd been through it all before. "Whatever it is honey, we'll all love it to bits, of course. I was just saying..." "You always ruin things, mom, how could you?" Dominique stormed out of the room. Marina took a long breath and reminded herself many storms blow over without a single drop of rain.

My best friend in high school, Stephanie, died when she was only 23. Toxic shock. One of the first cases. Every time I opened a box of tampons and saw that paper insert talking about toxic shock I thought of her. She was beautiful. She married a guy who was much older and made two lovely boys with him. They were the first really, truly hippies I ever knew. We were both 14 when she ran away and moved in with Chris. He was gorgeous. Long, dark hair and big dark shining eyes. They really loved each other. Her mother was crazy. Her father was abusive. Chris was kind and loving. They got married in their house in Topanga Canyon when Stephanie turned 16 and became an “emancipated minor”. They had punch spiked with LSD at their wedding reception.