Once mom got a Lilt brand home perm kit at the drug store and her and a neighbor woman down the street proceeded to fry Alice’s hair right off her head. They took all kinds of stuff out of a little white box. Pink plastic curlers and containers and packets of awful smellin’ stuff that they mixed up in bowls. Alice sat there so overjoyed that mom was combin’ her hair . . . showin’ her some attention. She was grinnin’ from ear to ear as they put on rubber gloves and went to work on her. Mom couldn’t read English too well so she had to rely on that other lady to follow the instructions. They wrapped Alice’s hair up and swabbed on the crap and then put a shower cap on her head. At first Alice didn’t complain much when her scalp started burnin’ . . . but after an hour she couldn’t take it anymore . . . she started cryin’. When mom pulled the shower cap off . . . curlers and tufts of Alice’s hair came off too. They washed the chemicals off her head and in the places where there was still hair left, it looked like someone had burnt it down to about a half an inch with a blow torch. It was just crispy coarse patches. Alice went to the mirror and looked at her hair. Mom tried to pat the top part down. She couldn’t even drag a comb through that singed stuff. I don’t think Alice cared how it looked. She studied her reflection and then just ran out to play. Afew kids made fun of her but that didn’t seem to matter . . . it was like she didn’t even know how bad her hair looked. She was just so PROUD of the fact that mom had actually tried to give her a permanent. I guess she would have suffered through just about anything to have evidence that mom liked her.