Chapter Four

Susan's earliest memory was powerful and clear. She was four and a half, and she was in the elevator of the Benson Hotel, Portland, Oregon, wearing a beaded strapless evening gown paid for with the proceeds of rabbits her mother Marilyn sold from hutches adjoining the double-wide trailer back in McMinnville.

Marilyn had toiled for umpteen hours on each of the gown's beaded filaments, in between furtive glances at walls papered with gown photos ripped from ladies' magazines and specialized pageantry publications. Marilyn had also recently purchased a glue gun and she had had great plans for fastening sparkly objects to belts and accessories.

Susan's face was heavily pancaked in a manner calculated to add fifteen years to her age. She was wearing a diagonal rayon sash across her chest reading petite miss multnomah county— first runner-up, and her face was so moist from tears it felt like an unsqueezed dish sponge. She remembered pushing a button for each of the floors. The doors opened sixteen times from penthouse to basement, each time revealing the absence of Marilyn.

Earlier, just before Susan had gone onstage, Marilyn had

clasped her shoulders, looked her dead in the eyes and said,

" Only the prettiest and the best-behaved girl gets to win, and if you don't win, I'm not going to be here waiting for you afterward. Do you understand this? Is this clear? " Susan had nodded and gone onstage with the fluid military precision drummed into her on a mock catwalk Marilyn had chalked onto the concrete at the cul-de-sac's end back in McMinnville. And yet she hadn't won, and had no idea what mistake had caused her to lose.

Once the elevator reached the lowest level, Susan pushed all the buttons on the pad again, and rose upward. When the doors on the main floor opened, she saw dozens of the mother-daughter molecules specific to pageantry, milling their way out the front door. Marilyn was speaking to the concierge. She looked at Susan exiting the elevator and, cool-as-you-will, said, " Oh my, a runner-up. " As Susan came closer she added, " I have a daughter, yes, but she's a winner, and you couldn't possibly be her because your sash says first runner-up, which means the same thing as losing. "

Susan burst into tears.

" Oh, shut up, " said Marilyn, and she gave her daughter a handkerchief. " You'll stain the dress. Come on. Let's walk to the car. "

Susan followed, brimming with the shameful gratitude of a puppy in training. The night was cool, on the brink of discomfort.

" Oh Susan, " began Marilyn, " You know how long we worked on this one. It's been weeks since I've touched a bingo card with Elaine or even watched TV. I think of the time I spend trying to make you the winningest little girl in Oregon and I start to feeling like those inmates in orange jumpsuits picking up litter on the sides of the Interstate. "

Bums heckled them as they walked through the town center.

Marilyn looked their way and said: " They can't pave this city fast enough. Put a ten-lane freeway right through these old heaps, call it a mall, and gas those wretched winos. "

Susan sniffled and her heels clicked on the sidewalk like a sous-chef's cutting knife on a board.

" Don't you have anything to say? " asked Marilyn. " You're so quiet, like a Barbie doll, except Barbie wouldn't have muffed her lighting cue on the 'Spirit of Recycling' dance routine. " Marilyn breathed a sigh like a deflating parade balloon. She lit a cigarette. " You could at least show a bit more spunk with me— fight back—a little bit of give-and-take. "

But Susan remained silent. Susan was going to be Barbie. She was going to be more Barbie than Barbie, and in having made this decision, she unwittingly followed Marilyn's dancing lead.

They reached the car, the sunroofed Corvair Susan considered the one truly glamorous aspect of her family's life. It appeared that Marilyn was not going to assist her, so as she got in, she carefully lifted and folded her dress so as not to damage it when shutting the door.

Marilyn started the car, and they pulled out of the downtown core. " Okay then, Susan. Your ramp walking was pretty good. A good stride. And the makeup worked well under that lighting. A bit too tarty, maybe, but good. "

" Mom? "

" Yes? "

" What's 'tarty'? "

Marilyn deemed it inappropriate to discuss tartiness with her four-and-a-half-year-old. She ignored the question. " Next time you're going to have to approach the fore-catwalk more naturally, and I truly think those bangs of yours are going to have to grow out some. " She looked over at her daughter. " Susan, your

eyes look like two cherry pits spit onto the floor, " but Susan was drifting off to sleep. A gentle rain was falling and the wipers were slapping. " I was never able to enter pageants myself, Susan. I could only dream of them. The excitement. The dresses. The winning. I was stuck out in the boondocks with my wretched family. " She pulled onto the highway back to McMinnville. " I never had what you have now—a mother who cares for you and who wants you to win. And certainly not what you're going to have—a big success in life—and trust me, you're going to have it. Me, I'll never be the prettiest or the purest or the best, but you—you will. "

Susan, sleepy, hoped Marilyn's good mood would stretch all the way home.

" I shouldn't bitch. I did end up getting your father—your stepfather—but he's as good as a real father. " Her voice relaxed. " Don the Swan. " She looked kindly over at Susan. " Baby, you'll win next time, won't you, sweetie? "

Susan looked up at her mother, rain splashing on the windshield and her small mouth emitted a calm, clear, and hopefully Barbie-like " Yes. "

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