by Jane Aldred

        Victoria stood in the cheap motel room's dingy bathroom and
studied her reflection.  "I look awful"  she thought.  Her long curly
tresses lay in heaps at her feet,  and the rich dark color had been
traded in for a garish red.  It wasn't supposed to be this color,  the
box had said "dusty blond" but the chemicals in the cheap dye
had reacted strongly to her hair.  "Well at least no one will recognize
me;  how could they, I don't even recognize myself."  Ben had loved
her hair;  the color and the feel of it.  Which was one of the reasons
she felt she had to cut it.

        It had been one week since that terrible night at the train station
and for the hundredth time she wondered if Ben was dead.  One day
when the waters had calmed she would look into it.

        If he was dead,  so what.

        If he was alive......

        I don't know what I'll do.  Maybe I could go back; if nothing else
Ben was a good lover.  It had felt so good to hurt him.  So right.

        Her eyes wandered to the piles of hair at her feet and, kneeling 
down,  she pulled over the trash can and started putting handfuls of
hair into the bin.

        She felt her eyes start to burn and her stomach tighten with rage. 
She was angry.  Angry at Ben for loving her and sending her to prison,  
angry at Ray for shooting him.  She was angry at the stupid hair color
and at the unfairness of the world.

Suddenly she grabbed the trash can and hurled it at the mirror 
screaming: "NEVER, I NEVER GO BACK!!" .  And with that she fell
the floor sobbing,  the mirror a reflection of Victoria's soul.

THE END.