[ozma]

I started fading fast and they laughed.

In the back of Nam's car I worked many bobby pins out of the back of my head and hair. Oooooooh, my own scalp. I could rub my abused scalp! The wig weight had not kept me from milder, but still dramatic, hair flips, and my head hurt from it.

I started planning how quickly I would sleep once in Momo's. Set out everything for the workshop, wash my face, sleep.

I was under the strange delusion that I could pull my hair back in a pony tail, quickly wash my body and face, and pass out. I kept to this ask Momo guided me home, holding my elbow the way you would a fragile old lady. This delusion was ruined when I saw and touched my hair, now without the rat and wig and pins, back at Momo's. I was a mess.

I wanted sleep, but I was heavily made up, my skin slightly tarnished from my coin drape, and my hair was matted and crunchy with hairspray.

Momo showed me her bathroom and explained what shampoos and conditioners to use/ She has an old fashioned Japanese bathroom and tub. There is no place on the wall to attach the shower head. Instead you're expected to fill a wash basin with water, soap up while sitting on a small plastic stool over a drain, using the shower head (which you hold in your hand )once it is time to rinse off. The tub is where you go after all of this has been done and it is a small square you sink into. The night was now chilly and her water pressure is next to non-existent. My sad, blind, scrub, shiver, and shampoo dance was a stark reminder of how glam this life really is. One moment you're covered in potatoes, then next you're beautiful, the next you're cursing in a shower trying to pry mascara off your lashes before you collapse in cold convulsions.

I changed into tye-dyed pants and a top Momo left for me and started combing out my hair. My goal was to dry enough of it that Momo wouldn't worry about me catching a cold and would thus allow me to sleep.

"Are you hungry?"

I mumbled something about sleep. My voice was dead enough that she realized talking time was over, hurried me into the bugland of bedding, and tucked me in. She returned a couple times to put more blankets on me.

And I slept.