Before She Disappeared

“Lani Whitehorse. Twenty-two years old. Waitress, daughter, mother of a three-year-old. A woman with an already long history of bad taste in men.

She disappeared eighteen months ago. Runaway, the locals decided. Never, her mother declared.”

This passage introduces the theme of Invisibility and Marginalization of Women of Color. Lani belongs to several marginalized groups. The intersection of those qualities lead to her being treated as disposable.

“In this neighborhood, I’m the minority. Then again, same with the past year, and the year before that, and the year before that. I’m used to the looks, though that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to take.”

As a white woman, Frankie finds herself as a racial minority in the majority Black and brown communities she tries to help. Her character echoes the White Savior trope, in which a white person believes it is their duty to save people of color.

“‘Why are you doing this?’ Paul demanded. ‘Why can’t I be enough for you?’

Me, standing there, unable to answer.

‘You’re an addict.’ He answered his own question bitterly. ‘That’s why. There will always be something you need more, some high you have to chase.’”

Frankie has already described her compulsion to find the lost as a substitute for alcohol. Her vocation to find the missing is just as destructive to her life and relationships as alcohol. Her self-isolation has deeper roots than mere addiction.