Her clothes go straight in the wash with two capfuls of bleach, shoes and all. Cora stands naked in the kitchen and washes her hands twice with mechanic soap—the kind meant to strip your hands of car grease—then goes straight to the shower and turns the hot water all the way up until steam fills the bathroom and she can hardly breathe. First is the rinse and scrub to dislodge any chunks, like Cora is a piece of fruit. Then the salt scrub, because that’s how you purge crawfish, how you make them vomit out all the garbage inside of them. Then comes the orange dish soap—regular bodywash always
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