Before Birdie ever sees herself, she sees her sister Cole. Cole is cinnamon skinned, curly haired and serious. Too young for mirrors, Birdie is content to see herself in that face. Birdie adores Cole, who is three years older. The two speak their own secret language, Elemeno, named after their favorite letters of the alphabet. It has phrases like peta marika vandersa. Cole insists they began devising it when Birdie was still in the womb. In the attic bedroom they share, among the stuffed animals and the dust, they whisper in bed together at night.
Gradually, things begin to change. Their mother and her friends spend hours locked in the basement, discussing forced integration and South Boston. Their parents begin to fight, throwing hurtful phrases at each other. "You pompous prick. You fat.....
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