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A cool breeze blows her hair across her face. The strands get caught in the gloss on her lips and tears under her eyes. A bird lands down by her feet, hops toward the dropped sheets, and then flies away.
It’s too much. Larry saying what he said and this letter from Axton.
The pages no longer feel heavy when she picks them up and puts them back in her purse. She will keep the letter and then show it to him in person. Get him to tell her those same words to her face. She gets up from the seat and feels her feet on the ground.
There is a lot to do. But just like he had to sit and think, she has to walk and think.
She leaves the park and continues going north. Soon she’s far away from home, far away from Limelight and her sisters. The neighborhood changes. There are more people and more stores. With a phone, she can always find her way back, she tells herself, but she checks the battery just in case.
Along the way there is happiness everywhere. Girls smiling and laughing with shopping bags in their hands. A couple climbs up some stairs in an outdoor yard. He lets her go first, his hand guiding her up. She stops on one of the stairs and turns around at something he says. She starts to laugh. He smiles. A little girl wobbly rides a bicycle on the sidewalk down a side street, a big grin on her face. In front of Avryl an older couple, two men, shuffle toward her holding hands. Single people around her read, carry yoga mats, or just look fabulous.
She approaches a salon called Snap and walks through a door that is propped open. The smell of ammonia, shampoo, and hairspray is there, but instead of crinkling her nose, it welcomes her inside.
The label the hairstylist shows her reads “baby green.”
Avryl casts a neutral gaze in the mirror over the blond waves cascading down past her shoulders. Compared to Lydia and Avryl, Yasmin’s hair lays a little straight. And she is taller than the other sisters. But, aside from that, the three of them look the same from behind. With her curls, Nayomi is the only one who stands out.
“It’ll go great with your eyes,” the stylist says.
Avryl nods.
She’s spent her whole life following her sisters, listening to everyone else tell her what to do. Then, two years of trying to carve a life out for herself in secret with the letters to Axton and her hidden letter openers.
It's time for her to get her happiness. To be one of those couples on the street. To figure out who she is in the world when she isn’t at Limelight or letting her sisters order her to get their coffee or warm up dinner.
Her phone vibrates with another text message just as the stylist shows her the mixed color.
She looks in the mirror with her eyes straight forward. This is not the time to let someone else decide for her or intimidate her into playing small.
Axton is mine.
She looks up to the hairstylist. “Do it.”
