The two-story house in the Palmdale subdivision looks like so many others. Green lawn out front, pool out back. Solid, comfortable, secure.
Inside, a teenager does her homework by candlelight whenever the power gets cut off. If the water goes too, she fills empty bottles at school to wash her hair.
Brie Fainblit just turned 19. She is used to not having what others have. Mostly she just accepts it.
But not for prom.
She wants to be Highland High's prom queen. She wants to turn heads.
Brie lives with her mother, who is disabled, and her aunt, who works two part-time jobs to support them.
Often there is not enough money for food. There is never enough for new clothes. Usually Brie finds what she can at the local Goodwill, but the prom dresses there are too big and too froufrou.
So back in September, with the dance a distant dot on a calendar, she decided to make one of her own — out of soda-can tabs, for free.
Prom is Friday. The dress is not finished. The tabs, meanwhile, have taken their toll: Brie and her mother both have Band-Aid fingers.
::
At the house Brie's mother, B.G. Watson, inherited from her mother, tin foil covers the windows to keep the hot sun out. Inside, the living-room ceiling soars, swallowing up the sparse furnishings.
The staircase leads to bedrooms barely used. To conserve energy, the three women sleep in the den. They don't use the central air or heat. They turn off lights. They light candles. They watch movies — there is no cable — on the small TV that sits in front of the big broken one.
They can't swim in the pool. The pump is broken too.
When the food runs out, mother and aunt collect bottles and cans. They try to go late at night so as not to humiliate Brie.
But collecting soda tabs is different. It's become a community project.
For months, Brie's aunt, Sylvia Davalos, has asked everyone at her jobs to help. She has put out jars at the 10th Street Wal-Mart, where she floats between departments, and at a local elementary school, where she works a few hours a day as a playground supervisor and instructional assistant.
Brie, her boyfriend and assorted friends and family have turned the dining-room table into an assembly line — threading together neon tabs from energy drinks and beers to make what they call "note to self" bracelets. They are thank-yous for donations, but also reminders to keep the tabs coming until the prom project's done.
Who knew that tabs came in so many colors, shapes and sizes? That some had holes and some didn't? That a lot had sharp edges that would need to be smoothed out with pliers? That they would all have to be soaked, swished around in sudsy water and then carefully dried to keep them from corroding or oxidizing?
Who knew that it would take many months to get enough perfectly shaped, identical silver tabs for one petite prom dress?
B.G. and Sylvia haven't been able to buy Brie much. But they have tried to make up for that by emphasizing creativity over cash.
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