I don’t look like my father at all.
No: Smiling, without hair for the first time in my life, I look exactly like my mother.
I turn to leave but glance back at my new image one more time.
“Who am I kidding?” I ask my reflection, rubbing my hand over my hair. “I can’t wait until this all grows back again!”
Sid
“Thanks, Jeannie!” I call to the library director as we head to our cars after my Reading Hour has ended. “I’ll see you next week.”
“Sure you don’t want to go to lunch?” she calls.
“I need to change. I’m exercising with Esther this afternoon,” I say. “And I’m Teddy’s nurse tonight.”
“Next time!” Jeannie waves as she departs.
I pull my cell from my pocketbook to check missed messages and head across the parking lot.
“Pedophile!”
I jump, dropping my cell.
A foot kicks it away from me.
I look up. The woman who threatened me weeks ago is back, standing in front me with a demented smile covering her face.
She is alone this time.
“You think I’m the one who’s wrong?” She laughs. “I saw your disgusting interview. You blame me for being angry? This isourtime in America, you fucking faggot. We’re taking the world back from sickos and Jews like you.”
I quickly glance around the parking lot. There’s a woman watching us. Her eyes are wide. She grabs her cell.
In the blink of an eye, the disgruntled woman pulls a gun from behind her back.
“We must remove filth like you from the world so it is safe again for our children.”
I hear a loud buzzing in my ears.
She points the gun at my head.
“I’d ask you to say a final prayer, but I know the wicked have no faith.”
Everything seems to be happening in time lapse: I see each action in slow motion.
Her finger is on the trigger.
The next thing I see is my pocketbook knocking the gun out of her hand. She looks away to see where it has landed. I swing my pocketbook again, and it strikes her once, twice, until she is on the ground. I continue to beat her with my clutch.
The woman grabs me by the collar of my sweater and jostles me back and forth, choking me, until I drop the purse. She slaps at my head, face, chest.
I hear a clink on the asphalt. My grandmother’s cameo that I wear as Sophia has toppled free. I grab it, turn it upside down and hold the sharp pin to her eye.
“One more move, and I will blind you, bitch, just like Samson!” I yell.
She stares at me, eyes wide, before squeezing them shut for protection.
I hear sirens approaching.
