Cooper Mall

I'm a really ambitious chick, but this sounds like an impossible to-do list to me.

That's the first rule she made for herself.

A clean life starts with a clean page.

Complete with a new name, of course.

And so I had picked the name Tanya Lynn Myers.

She chose a name plain enough to blend in, but still feel like hers.

In 1970, this was shockingly easy to do.

That application was all she needed to get a Social Security number.

And with the new identity came a new birthday.

Don't act like you wouldn't be tempted to do the same.

With the drop of an application in a mailbox, Margo Freshwater was gone.

Tanya Lynn Myers had taken her place.

A normal job, the beginning of a normal life.

Tanya tried to work hard and keep her head down.

Still, she couldn't avoid the world forever.

One night, the woman she lived with suggested they go out for a drink.

Nothing crazy, just a little fun.

His name was Phil Zimmerman, a blue-collar guy who shuffled between handiwork and construction jobs.

I found him annoying.

He was not her type.