“That's what I'll be. A silhouette, rarely seen, and yet believed in. Kaeleigh wants to believe in me. I am her twin, forever alive inside her. And when she needs me, I am always here.”

“RaeanneMirror, MirrorWhen I look into amirror,it is her face I see.Her right is my left, doublemoles, dimple and all.My right is her left,unblemished.We are exactopposites,Kaeleigh and me.Mirror image identicaltwins. One egg, one spermone zygote, divided,sharing one completeset of genetic markers. On the outside we are the same. But not inside. I thinkshe is the egg, somuch like our motherit makes me want to scream.Cold.Controlled. That makes me the spermI guess. I take completelyafter our father.All Daddy, that's me.Codependent. Cowardly. Good, bad. Left, right. Kaeleigh and Raeanne. One egg, one sperm. One being, split in two. And how manysouls?”

“I Want to ShoutLeave me alone!What's wrong with you?Don't you remember who I am? Who you are?This is not a father's love! I want to scream, Can't you see what you are doing to me? What you've done to me? What you've made of me? I want to cry out, I am your little girl. I am not your girlfriend. I am not your whore. I am not my fucking mother! But he is on top of me and my shout is silenced. He is inside of me and my scream stays there too. He is finished. And I don't cry out, but I do cry a bucket of silent tears. He slithers away and at last, I quietly sob”

“PrettyThat's what I am, I guess.I mean, people have been tellingme that's what I am sinceI was two. Maybe younger. Prettyas a picture. (Who wantsto be a cliché?) Pretty asan angel. (Can you see them?)Pretty as a butterfly. (But isn'tthat really just a glam bug?)Cliché, invisible, or insectlike,I grew up knowing I waspretty and believing everything goodabout me had to do with howI looked. The mirror was my bestfriend. Until it started telling me I wasn't really pretty enough.”

“Ian's sense of right and wrong overwhelms me. Not a single other person .... I knowpossesses such an unshakable sense of morality.Its more than unbelievable. It's frightening.To offer without strings something all men crave,and be rejected by him is incomprehensible.Think I'll have to kick Kaeleigh's ass.Does she have any idea what it means .... to beso treasured? He has built a pedestal for her so tallthat she is afraid to be lifted atop it, because to fallwould mean certain death. But oh, she would rise far, far beyond fear.”

“I told her about the man, not my daddy, she said, He was only making you into a real girl. I didn’t understand. But I made myself believe her. I was a real girl now. But what was I before?”

“I hope I'm never a mom. But if I am, I'll make damn sure my kids look up to me.”