After my sister moved back into the neighborhood she started to
develop a much more eccentric personal style. While she was up in
Montana with her boy friend and his friends they all decided to shave
their heads and my sister got in on that action. She shaved her head
to the skull in a move that for most girls would make them stand out
in a crowd and she was no exception. The moment she arrived back at
school after her summer sabbatical she was the most interesting thing
in our school. Everyone knew about her shaving her head and asked me
about it all day long for the first day or two. In our culture it
seems that only cancer and fighting aliens are appropriate reasons
for a woman to not have hair so a voluntarily shorn woman short
circuited the collective brains of the school. One day when she
called me in the morning to get a ride to school I dropped by to pick
her up and in addition to her shaved head she had added a pair of
bright orange pants to the attention grabbing ensemble that had
become her style. I remember walking into school with her quite late
and being all alone in the hall way that was brightly lit compared to
the gathering gloom outside. She told me that after basketball
tryouts if she didn't make the team she was going to drop out of
school. She had played for two years on the school team and it was
the one anchor she had left into the button down small town life. I
got a sick feeling in my stomach when she said that because I knew
that besides running away the worst thing a kid could do for their
quality of life was to drop out. Well, I guess that or get pregnant
which was an option for her as well I guess. I sincerely was hoping
and praying that she would make the team and the regimentation would
help her straiten up and fly right and my hope of hopes was that she
would reconcile with my parents and maybe even move back in. I wished
he luck and didn't see her again for a week or so when she told me
that she had to move out of the first neighbors house and into
another's. She told me that she hadn't made the team and that she was
dropping out and going to work at a local fast food restaurant full
time. We hung out a little bit on and off but mostly off and I would
only see her every couple of weeks or months until things got really
bad for her and she had to move away to a work camp.
