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"The temperature suddenly rose about a hundred degrees. I stood up from where I had been bent over my laundry basket and began walking toward the man. I walked fast and I couldn't wait until I got there. In a way I felt hollow, empty of all... the fear and sadness I had fought for so long to rid myself of. 'You smell as if you haven't bathed in several weeks', I said. 'Your wig looks like the pelt of a skinned cat. And the ugly warts on your face have destroyed every bit of desire I had to sit down and have my lunch.'
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"Stanley Birch was the first man who was supposed to turn us into a family. A convicted car thief, he hopped on a plane the day he was released, flying from Texas to Maine when I was two years old, to come and live with us. The night before... the wedding, he beat my mother up pretty bad. I remember her standing in front of the mirror that night with a camouflaging stick, dabbing it beneath her swollen eye"...
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The little-known history of RI in the "good old days", which includes murder, suicide, piracy, prostitution and other shocking tales... |