Izzy Aslin

“We arranged ourselves for the camera as we always had. Dwight nestled in the center of our strained, uncomfortable poses. As the camera clicked and whirred, I felt detached, like I was watching the scene unfold from outside my own body. Ruby’s smile was fixed and brittle, her eyes hard. Kevin’s expression was distant and closed off. And the rest of us wore expressions painted on like masks. The smiles were too wide, the eyes too bright. When the photographer tried to coax Kevin and Ruby into a kiss, Ruby flat-out refused and turned away from him as though he were a stranger. The result was the most awkward family photos in the history of family photos. No amount of photoshop could ever fix that. Even Dwight looked a little off, like he could sense the tension radiating from us in waves. He knew a sinking ship when he saw one.”
― Shari Franke, The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom