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	Donning the Dreads   Last night in a small room with the house to myself, the peppermint scented bath water seemed just hot enough, the candles burned just bright enough as I stepped in and remembered just why I needed the ambiance of this room so often.   Sinking further into the warmth, holding the sea sponge in one hand, and the ivory in the other, my senses noted the saxophone playing in the background as my consciousness was soothed and I became … immersed.   When I opened my eyes I saw the pecan tan that had engulfed my skin. Was I really this brown-skinned woman? To be sure I was copper-toned all over, and wondered how I could have been so blind. What color, after all, had I imagined myself to be for all these years?   And the question of my hair suddenly became charcoal clear. I’d just wash it and let it go – be a self-made woman finally, clearly brown, donning my home-made, self-locking, dreads.

© 2003 Loretta Crosby. All Rights Reserved.