”Catch me heal me lift me back up to the sun
Help me survive the bottom
Calm these hands before they
Snare another pill and
Drive another nail down another
Needy hole please release me”*

Next morning – In front of Jenny’s house

Carmen knocks at the front door.
Everything seems oddly soundless, like in a silent film: Jenny’s house – no sounds from it -, Bette and Tina’s house, the whole neighbourhood, the street, everything.
Even the birds don’t chirp in the backyards and it’s quite disturbing.
“This has to be the worst nightmare of my entire life”, Shane thinks to herself staring at the sky.
The morning is cloudy. Big, menacing grey clouds that seem to say: hey you down there, we’re about to piss on your heads.
Carmen knocks again, totally expressionless.
Finally, Jenny opens the door and from the look on her face you’d say she didn’t spent a wow night. Her mascara is all plastered around her eyes, her hair is messy and she’s still wearing the same black dress she had on the previous night.
Seeing Carmen, she half-smiles and doesn’t seem surprised at all.
“Hi”, she murmurs, ignoring Shane totally.
“Hi Jenny”.
Carmen’s voice slightly warmer than usual.
But no hugs and no kisses and no joyful squeaks.
Shane stares at her own shoes, feeling an abrupt guilt. Feeling ashamed.
“Shane is here to pack her bag. We are going to leave for New York in three hours”, Carmen says.
Shane really didn’t have a normal, regular childhood. Otherwise, she would have felt like a baby girl convoked, with her mother, into the principal’s office.
“Okay”.
Jenny moves away from the door and they both go into the house.
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, Shane thinks going directly to her bedroom, at rapid pace.
Carmen is resting her back against the wall, in the hall, arms folded. She is waiting silently. She and Jenny exchange a glance.
Then.
Surprise.
Nikki Stevens gets out from Jenny’s room and bumps into Shane.
A dismayed look on both of their faces.
Shane blushes and bends her head.
“Uhm, sorry”, she murmurs rapidly, taking refuge in her own room and closing the door immediately.

”Say hello to the rug’s topography
It holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it
Say hello to the shrinking in your head
You can’t see it but you know its there so don’t neglect it”