And then it became clear: what Dorothy hated about her mother was what she hated about herself. Dorothy had become the spitting image of her mother. That was why Dorothy could no longer stand to look at herself in the mirror even long enough to comb her hair.
Lizza, too, looked and acted a lot like her own mother. But mother was beautiful and mother had always protected Lizza from harm. Lizza’s mother was nothing like the horrible human mother Dorothy hated. Lizza longed to see her own mother again, to feel protected. If mother were here, she would know what to do. Mother always knew exactly what to do.
But mother wasn’t here, and Lizza felt helpless and alone and abandoned, exactly as Dorothy had felt as a child. Dorothy’s father had beaten her, her older brothers had sexually abused he
