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Extracted Text (OCR)
= on 8S 4 Sonera =
James PATTERSON
come up, and Mary’s head drops dramatically in anticipation.
Then a loud, sexy throb spills out of the earbuds: Britney Spears.
The bass line takes over, and she starts to dance, moving her
hips as she lip-synchs the lyrics:
With a taste of a poison paradise...
Mary's swept away by the song. She's twirling around and
around, flinging her arms out to grab the clothes hanging up in
her closet — it’s like embracing ten thousand fans! Then she stops
and pulls out the earbuds. Suddenly she’s become fourteen again.
Just a girl, jittery, nervous.
What she’s thinking about now is what she will wear to the
big fancy house.
Mary desperately wants to make an impression. This will be her
first trip to the house. She does not want to look like a child on
this outing.
She picks out a pair of skinny white jeans, puts on a freshly
washed halter top that leaves her flat stomach bare. The cross
that Joe gave her last Christmas hangs from her neck.
Think of the money, she thinks.
For Mary, it’s incredible money. Several weeks’ wages at
Mickey D’s. And just for giving some old man a massage? She
twists the earbuds back in, dives into the closet, sings along with
Britney Spears:
Don't you know that you're toxic?
The tight white jeans fit Mary perfectly. She turns to check
herself out in the mirror, cropping the scene with her fingers to
EE eR ES
block out the Barbies bi
in big, high-ceilinged bx
with natural smiles, per
dolls are beautiful. The:
if Mom and Dad are w
mothers and fathers are
you get Barbies— passe
sister to sister. They’re rz
of knowingness to the c
American Girl dolls are
Barbie’s dangling her loi
from women.
Be like Barbie, Mary t
She can’t be nervous.
What she tells hersel
a deal.
But, of course, it is a
big fancy house will bec
police investigation— ar
the Palm Beach PD —ar
the home's owner, Jeffrey
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