While waiting to talk to Helen about Fun Home, Alison reads from Miller’s The Drama of the Gifted Child about how the first child becomes a Cathected Object, which the mother controls. That night, Alison dreams of Helen rehearsing for a play in front of a large mirror in their old home, but she is allergic to her corset’s decorations. As Alison wakes up, she remembers three words: “drive,” “thwart,” and “laden” (207).

During a book tour, a fan shows Alison a cast photo of Helen from The Miser, leading to a story about how she nearly faints on stage due to her corset. That same season, Helen plays Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, a play where a daughter admires her mother’s acting. Alison is in awe of her mother’s performance, particularly her solo of “Liaisons”, but is oblivious to the similarities in the play’s mother-daughter relationship.

Helen obsesses over her makeup and tells a young Alison she looks pale. Alison sneaks her blush away and comments on how it makes her look like “a real child” (214). She also begins retouching school photographs with a crayon and later on, receives a black and white photograph of her doing karate with pink retouching ink on her cheeks.