Oona's parasuicide

PART ONE

1.

Oona is born in a field behind a punk rock concert. She has soft skin and puffy eyes.

When Oona is two, a man in a white slicker leaves her in a deli in Atlantic City. Two weeks later, New Jersey State assigns Oona a social worker. The social worker gives Oona to Marty. We don’t know if this one had a mother or not, the social worker muses.

2.

Oona is a fifteen year old white girl. You look like a tramp, Marty says. Marty smokes cigarettes. Marty beats Oona with a metal baseball bat in the cemetery behind her high school. Get undressed Oona, Marty says.

3.

She has a history of physical and sexual abuse.

4.

Oona is addicted to crack. She buys crack from her pimp. Niko is her pimp. Niko sells Oona to business men from Staten Island. The men tie Oona to bedposts and whip her with belts. She likes it rough, Niko says.

5.

Oona smokes crack in the bathroom and her eyes turn small and beedy. I think I am green, Oona thinks. Pretend to like it next time, Niko says. You are a hooker.

6.

Oona is a hooker.

PART TWO

a.

They howl in the bedroom.

b.

She is in the bathroom. She inches to her feet. She is red in blood, her blood. Her mouth is dry and her lips are cracked. She is uncomfortable and has to urinate.

c.

My shirt is ripped, she thinks and sees that she is naked—except the shirt. She still has her shirt on. But it is red now, in blood.

d.

Is this my blood, she wonders. She lifts her shirt to her nose and smells. It smells like my blood. They are wolves, she thinks. They howl again. Oh, she thinks. It is Niko.

e.

Niko makes a lot of noise, she thinks.

PART THREE

i.

Cans of coke cost 75 cents in the lobby. She has 75 cents in her purse. Where is my purse, she asks. Fuck if I know, Niko says.

ii.

The lobby is crowded but the people are quiet. Thank you, Oona says. A woman behind a desk wears a suit. She looks like a flight attendent. The woman asks Oona if she is ok.

iii.

Is the coke machine working, Oona asks.

PART FOUR

I.

Oona is put into hard restraints and taken into a white building with men and women in white.

II.

Oona plans a parasuicide:

Plan A: Use belt around neck
Plan B: Insert nose ring into vein
Plan C: Dive off sink in Quiet room
Plan D: Tie yellow suit around neck.

III.

Oona takes out her nose ring and puts it into her mouth. Hank is a security guard and he likes to touch the girls on their chests. Hank puts Oona’s arms behind her back and puts Oona in soft restraints.

IV.

Oona has a history of hospitalizations.


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