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Show 14 Everything that had gone before, that was part of her girlhood. That was over. She was no longer a girl. She had only herself to depend on. Fine. She would go from there. She slept in the same room as Jeanne, the oldest daughter, who was eleven, and after she had gone to sleep, Sharon would turn on the radio, which was on the nightstand beside her bed. She had bought the radio with the money she had earned at the store. She also bought all her clothes, and the little things she needed: shampoo and Kotex, nylons and cigarettes. Robbie still paid her tuition at school, but she could handle that now herself, if need be. She was determined to set herself up so that she was independent, so that she would not have to depend on anyone else in the world. She would play the radio very low, listening in the darkness. The voices talking to her, singing to her. To her alone. This was her private time, her alone time. She did not cry now, she was past that. Her bitterness at Robbie, at Katie, had gradually evaporated. They were not to blame for her situation; no, they were almost beside the point. It was the knowledge that she was truly alone in the world that remained. And the desire, the determination, to become independent. This continued to grow in her. She made her plans. That summer she would go on full time at the store. By September she would be on her own. She would get her own apartment. She kept a calendar on the nightstand beside her radio. Every night when she turned off the radio, she would mark out a day. Her very last act-a momentary victory-before rolling over into |