The House of Impossible Beauties

— because she didn’t need to be a woman as much as she needed to have the air of a woman. So when her mother and brother, Miguel, were out of the house to run the weekly errands, Angel would take off her jeans and shave her legs. She stood there naked in front of Mami’s vanity. She tucked her stuff back—up and away with a piece of duct tape—and closed her legs so that they crossed like an