Two! Three! Four!” “If you wanna know if he loves you so, it’s in his kiss, that’s where it is.” The Separations were great. They had a sound they called Hillybilly Soul Banjo and snare-drum, girl-group harmonies, steel guitar played hard on pedal and plec. Tall bass, thumb- and finger-plucked, and a Pentecostal piano; every chord a call to Judgement Day. That was Shep. They called themselves The Separations because Holly, Polly and Molly were BabyHatch kids. The group had started out as the Orphans but that was too sad. Anyway, Perdita was literal-minded and HollyPolly Molly couldn’t be orphans because orphans are children whose parents are dead. The girls were foundlings—but who wants a girl group called the Foundlings? Then Holly read something at school about six degrees of separation and, as they were all fans of vinyl retro soul, like The Three Degrees…and as they had been separated from their parents, it was obvious. The three girls, HollyMollyPolly, were Chinese triplets.
