Now I felt her tracing my future, the form I would one day take. She was not the only one who could see the secret in my body. Strangers saw and called me names for it. Children saw and threw rocks at it. My mother saw and pretended not to, called it graceless, an awkward phase. When Jules saw it, she wanted its mouth on her mouth, but then pushed it away. Sylvia was the only one who did not recoil or strike. Imagine what that is like, to have just one person in your life who does not behold your truest self with fear or disgust. It’s the most wonderful and terrible thing. That person delivers
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