30

The only other time my mother caught me at something and I truly believed I was going to die was when I painted my lips with Laura's lipstick, who had been specifically hired to be my mother then. Like others before her, Laura loved me to a fault, not because I was sweet, but because I was basically motherless.. Maybe she sensed my loneliness or maybe she could tell my life was very sad but she had a habit of taking me to the worker's quarters with her, to her three roomed house that was colorful compared to our monochromatic one. She would let me touch and play with whatever I wanted and we had this little secret where I collected some things I liked and carried them back to the main house with me.

I would hide them well, Laura never ran out of creative places to hide these things, like inside my winter boots for example.