Jessica:

   She wandered over to see Chrissy and Brian. She was
wearing an old battered walkman that required her to turn
her body in various directions to stay tuned to her
station. She had blonde hair, which had the slightest green
tint as tho she had been swimming in a chlorinated pool a
lot. She was fairly young and pretty, full of energy and
would always use the family terms of the street when she
spoke. I saw her one day and her long blonde hair was gone,
her head totally shaved, except for bangs in the front for
memory's sake. "Everyone in my family's wearing it", she
said. Her bare head made the headphones from her brand new
walkman stand out. A few days before someone 'gave' her the new
one. I was with her when it happened. She was sitting on
the grass in her shorts and this pickup drives by slow like - she
displays recognition and to my horror says she'll be right
back and skips over to join a middle-aged male for a little
ride. Her hair was still long then and it bounced as she ran.

 Great, I think, watching her bag. Fifteen or twenty
minutes later along comes the truck and out she hops and
bounces over to me.  She's wearing her new walkman for the
first time, smiles galore. I look directly at her and ask
"Jessica, exactly what kind of horrible, disgusting sort of
thing did you have to do to get that?!" She laughs and says
"Oh please, he's just this old freak who thinks he's like
my dad or something and always gives me money and shit for
nothing." She pulls out fifteen dollars and snickers. 

 One day she had a bottle of nail polish remover and amused
herself by burning it in small amounts. She filled up the
bottle cap and set it alight. Just the top part seemed
to be on fire and it burned almost like a candle, slow and
steady and predictable. She talked about how one winter she
was really cold and would buy the big economy-size bottle to
keep her warm through the night. 

I think she'll survive.