I went away with my dad and sister. I stayed in the pool until my fingernails turned purple, like tiny bruises. Bought a few things at a flea market that felt like a ghost town, like a place everyone had left in a hurry. In the women’s restroom, I met two grannies. They adored my shoes, told me I looked so young (I needed that) and complimented my hair. One told me to fill in my eyebrows; the other said to stay exactly as I am. They couldn’t stop laughing and teasing each other. One of them said, ‘We’re young too, we’ve just been young longer than you.’ It made me smile. They reminded me of Miss Spink and Forcible from Coraline.
Later, I had a few hallucinations, the sink water turned into blood while I was washing my hands, and I felt spiders in my hair