... mixed with her shadow. Ex-cept for the birds, she was alone with her thoughts, with hopes tocaulk the crevice between her mother and father, the way she’dseen her mother do, wearing latex gloves, ... his mother, from the strawberry bumps on her legs where she dry- shaved with herGillette to the way her black hair knotted at the nape of her neck.When the mean boys, the ones with fathers ... struck by light-ning.”He sat on the sofa. “If you got struck by lightning, you’d bedead.” He didn’t look up. The den’s gold drapes were parted. The sky was black. Beccashivered, waiting for...