Loving the Stars

"I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blonde and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Mama used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, "That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash." Elsie was a tart. Until the summer before her seventeenth birthday changed everything.