GLIMPSES OF WHO WE ARE

"This is Alaska. You can do everything," she sings. Pony-tailed Maria, her black eyes shining, is pretend-reading to her pretend-audience in the waiting room of the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center. Only six, she holds out her book about dinosaurs to show off illustrations, keeping up a steady banter. "You brush your teeth…shush shush shush. You brush your teeth each morning." She makes the most of this waiting time on a rainy October evening. It's quiet except for three young women softly talking over the hum of a heater and distant fax machine. While Maria and her father wait, she entertains her imaginary group, and he leafs through a picture book of purple and hot pink dinosaurs just like hers.