I won’t be saved.
At a shop that sells evening gowns, there was a young woman trying on a short dress, so the shop owner said to her, “My dear young lady, a short dress shortens your stature. Better to get a long one. It’ll give you height and flatter your figure.”
A bit of information at just the right time. A long blue one, then. This is what I’d determined to be the gown of my dreams.
I read something similar in a fashion magazine. The idea was that long hair gives the impression of extra height and makes a woman appear taller. I didn’t know that when I decided, as a child, not to cut my hair. Rather, I was silently defying Aisha and dreaming that this coarse and matted hair of mine would transform one day into wavy hair like my aunts and sisters had.
My aunt was scary like her sist
