WHY WE LOVE THE GIRL DETECTIVE.
We love the girl detective because she reminds us of the children we wish we had. She is courteous, but also brave. She loathes injustice; she is passionate, but also well-groomed. She keeps her room neat, but not too neat. She feeds her goldfish. She will get good grades, keep her curfew when it doesn't interfere with fighting crime. She'll come home from an Ivy League college on weekends to do her laundry.
She reminds us of the girl we hope to marry one day. If we ask her, she will take care of us, cook is nutritious meals, find our car keys when we've misplaced them. The girl detective is good at finding things. She will balance the checkbook, plan vacations, and occasionally meet us at the door when we come home from work, wearing nothing but a blue ribbon in her hair. She will fill our eyes. We will bury our faces in her dark, light, silky, curled, frizzed, teased, short, shining, long, shining hair. Tangerine, clove, russet, coal-colored, oxblood, buttercup, clay-colored, tallow, titian, lampblack, sooty, scented hair. The color of her hair will always inflame us.
She reminds us of our mothers.
WHY WE FEAR THE GIRL DETECTIVE.
She reminds us of our mothers. She eats our dreams. She knows what we have been up to, what we are are longing for. She knows what we are capable of, and what we are not capable of. She is looking for something. We are afraid she is looking for us. We are afraid that she is not looking for us. Who will find us, if the girl detective does not?