ned with every barrette we owned carefully snapped into a wild row of rainbow-colored bows and posies down the side of my head. She had also gone all out with the makeup. I had one extremely full and dark eyebrow, which started above my nose, arched over one eye, and ended on the side of my cheek near my ear. She had used two colors of lipstick, orange on the top lip and pink on the bottom—and, well, at three, Erin hadn’t quite gotten the hang of coloring inside the lines. A half moon of purple shadow swooped over one eye, and a wide stripe5 of green adorned the other. She’d been reasonably accurate with the blush, applying two heavy red circles just beyond the corners of my mouth. I looked like the victim of a Crayola explosion.
The next time the UPS man came, I wanted to explain, but he seemed to be in a hurry. Never mind, I thought, let him think what he wants. But it was some time before I allowed Erin to“make Mommy pretty”again.
Today, I looked at the lovely young woman before me and thought, well, it was practice for a day like this. Though it wasn’t based solely on her appearance, of course, she got the job—and made her mom very proud.