The reabsorption began on a Thursday. Channel 9 News reported that two young Korean girls touched palms at recess and that their flesh melted and stuck. Trying to separate them caused the girls immense pain; they screamed as the skin between their hands stretched and sagged like molten cheese. “Suddenly Siamese Twins?” exclaimed a newscaster, his face locked in a rictus of enthusiasm. “Twelve-Year-Olds Stuck Together in this Foreboding Incident!”
It was that day that Kayla noticed a change in her mother, who was usually so bright and intrusive. She sat, withdrawn, at the breakfast table, picking the fluffy residue off of a skinned orange. Later, when Kayla came home from class, her mother had gone to the Asian grocery store. Kayla saw her on the news: a part of the Atlanta FoodMart Mass.
