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Snapshot!
Previously...
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Dollface in the Dark
The gold ring her grandmother had given her shone brilliantly in the morning sun. It reminded her of how bright the sand got at the beach in the middle of summer. So blinding that you had to look away, but so beautiful that you could not. Samantha stared at her ring. It sat on her left index finger, always, but where she was seeing it now, though still on her hand, seemed unfamiliar. She tried to move her arm to bring her hand into a clearer line of sight, but it was too heavy. In fact, now that she thought about it, her entire body seemed impossibly leaden. As though she was never an upright being, instead, born to the pavement, flat, solid, immobile.
The bone from her wrist poked through her torn skin and she thought, that’s mine. What a strange feeling, to see something for the first time, something so intimately yours, and to be terrified of it. And then she remembered.
The previous evening had been a late and intoxicating one so even though the hour was only 10pm I decided to go to bed. I fell asleep to the sound of gentle rain and Captain Picard being very English beyond the closed bedroom door. My sleep was sound, if not a little restless with disturbing dreams, and at 12:30am Adam looms over the bed and shakes me awake.
Thus began my collection of Archie Digest Magazines. I would stay up past my bedtime reading by the illumination of a flashlight. But there was no fooling mom, she would walk past by bedroom and as I quickly tucked the light under the covers she would say, "Heather Marie! Lights out." Pretty soon I had a tall stack of Archie comics on the floor next to my bed. I would read them over and over again. Knowing each one cover to cover. I loved visiting Riverdale. It was a small, safe town that was always idyllic. The gang would get into zany mischief at Riverdale High and then go hang out after school at Pop's Soda Shop. Betty and Veronica always fought over Archie and Archie loved them both, in different ways, and could never make up his mind. Reggie loved Veronica and would always concoct villainous plans to steal her from Archie. And sometimes they worked. Moose, the big dumb lug, loved Midge. And Midge, despite his jealousy, loved Moose. Jughead loved food. A lot. And Ethel loved Jughead. A lot. But through the thick and thin of it, all of them were the best of friends. No matter what. |
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It was a dark and stormy night. No, really. It was. And Adam and I had just come home from seeing a horror play called The Turn, which was basically a mashup story of Turn of the Screw and The Shining. It was a pretty awesome production, creepy and atmospheric with some genuine scares along the way. And the two ghosts that haunt the house, well, they were very memorable.
Back in 1988, when I was 10 years old, I had a pocketful of allowance money when I walked into the local pharmacy looking for a way to spend it. My go-to item was always the stuffed animals or their somewhat miserable supply of Barbies, but I hadn't saved up and therefore had to hunt for something a little closer to the $5 bill clutched in my fist. So I headed to the books and periodicals section. I was an avid reader, maybe they had a 
