My sisters and I had always loved old maid, our deck well-worn. Whoever got stuck with the old maid card at the end of the game would always shriek dramatically in horror. But on that Saturday, when Zelie and I played alone and I ended up with the old maid, I studied what was supposed to be her hideous face, her double chin and splotchy skin, her bulging eyes behind thick glasses, her protruding teeth. She was supposed to be scary; she was meant to frighten little girls. But given what had happened to Aster and Rosalind, maybe the old maid was the lucky one.
